p1906 -
New Dawn and Vote 100: Commemorating suffrage activism in the UK Parliament
Between 1866 and 1928, the Houses of Parliament was a site for suffrage activism, as the actual and symbolic manifestation of state power and governance over the rights and status of women. Suffragists presented petitions, marched and lobbied; suffragettes chained themselves to statues, broke windows and hid in the building overnight. Yet little physical evidence of this gendered interaction is visible today in the Palace of Westminster. Its debating chambers, committee rooms, tea rooms and galleries are designed for an era when women were present but usually invisible, and their experience is not apparent to the thousands of people - MPs, peers, staff and the public - who inhabit the building daily.
This paper will discuss these challenges and critically analyse efforts by heritage professionals to encourage thinking and talking about women in Parliament. It will consider two major projects currently in progress: 'New Dawn', a major new permanent work of contemporary art by a light installation artist, to be installed in 2016; and 'Vote 100', a project to mark the centenary of partial suffrage for women in 2018. It will examine the usefulness of collaboration between archivists, historians, curators and creative practitioners; the importance of anniversaries and political milestones in bringing the suffrage story to a wider audience, and how project research and outputs of this type can contribute to scholarship on women and Parliament during the suffrage movement and beyond.