A personal take on art around Sheffield and beyond.

While in Canada in 2014, I came across the Kemble Womens’ Institute monument and was struck by how unusual it was to see a positive representation of women and their lives, accustomed as we are to monuments of white men that fail to be representative of the population.

Recognition of this disparity in public artwork has gained traction in recent years with all aspects of diversity now being celebrated. Initial data revealed the extent of the difference whilst initiatives and campaigns worldwide are celebrating inspirational women, including Sheffield’s own, Women of Steel: Imperial War Museum memorial

In 2018 the BBC ‘Reality Check’ programme asked: ‘How Many UK Statues are of Women’, by using data from The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association: PMSA they revealed:

‘Of the 828 statues recorded, 174 were female, of which 38 were of royalty whilst 15 were fictional figures. In comparison 534 male statues, of which 422 were named and 16 classed as fictional. [BBCNews]

The Art Fund’s Public Sculpture Annual Report 2024 determined that up to spring 2024 there were over 14,800 public artworks, of this figure around 20% are dedicated to or depict real life people. The remainder are abstract, historical, mythological allegorical, literary themes or depict wildlife.

By 2023 17 sculptures were unveiled dedicated to or depicting named men and women, of these sculptures 12 (46%) were women, 14 (54%) were men, of the 26, 16 represent white men and women (62%) Art Fund report a definite improvement.

Though the figures are improving and we have much to celebrate as the tide turns worldwide with some astonishingly driven projects detailed below, we still have a long way to go in recording inspirational and incredible female role models for young people, especially for young girls to learn from.

Organisations campaigning for more female representation in public are doing so with humour, passion and drive and by using memorable names: Carving a Place for Women, Statues for Equality, Invisible Women, Monumental Women and Erect more Women..

Carving a place for Women, an item on Europeana: European digital cultural heritage, Europeana, explores the many variants of female depiction, particularly woman as a concept and promotes campaigns such as Invisible Women and Erect More Women by campaigning for more statues commemorating women's achievements.

Carving a place for Women

Created in 2014 to create the first statue of real women in Central Park’s 167-year history. The Park has statues of Alice in Wonderland, Mother Goose, Juliet with Romeo, witches, nymphs, and angels – but no real women.

Monumental Women has the further goals of increasing awareness and appreciation of Women’s History through a nationwide education campaign and challenging municipalities across the country and across the world to rethink the past and reshape the future by including tributes in their public spaces to the diverse women who helped create and inspire those cities. Monumental Women

Statues for Equality - A global mission to balance gender and racial representation in public statues

Artists and activists, Gillie and Marc created Statues For Equality after a reflection of their own work. Over a period of 15 years they had many sculpture commissions of men but only 1% of women! They found that this was not unique for them but a global issue.Gender and racial inequality is among the most critical issues facing the world today. Now, artists around the world are banding together to spark the change for equality in a beautiful way, with Statues For Equality.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Created by Gille and Marc Schattner

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg devoted her life’s work to promoting equal justice for all as the pioneering director of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, arguing landmark cases on gender equality before the Supreme Court of the United States, as a Judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and as the second woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

“We had the honor and privilege to create Justice Ginsburg’s distinguished likeness in everlasting bronze as a part of Statues for Equality." The artists continue, “With the two steps on its large base representing the Supreme Court and the climb she made to get there, the work is designed to provide the public with an opportunity to stand at her side, and gain inspiration from her journey fighting for equal rights.” Statues for Equality

Though home to a very well known female statue in Copenhagen’s harbour and ‘I am Queen Mary’ I am Queen Mary to memorialise Denmark’s colonial impact in the Caribbean and those who fought against it, the disparity has been noticed in Denmark as well.

Culture Minister, Engel-Schmidt, who has a three-month-old daughter, noticed walking around Copenhagen that most sculptures were of men, horses and mythical animals. It made him worry that future generations would think Denmark had been created only by men.

“As minister of culture I noticed we had a problem with representation in Denmark’ Engel-Schmidt has pledged to spend up to 50m Danish kroner (£5.7m) on correcting the imbalance and will set up a committee to propose women to be commemorated with new statues and arts.”

Announcing the plan, he said: “The numbers almost speak for themselves: just 31 out of 321 statues and busts in cities are of women, and in Copenhagen there are more statues of mythical animals than women. It’s totally crazy’. Mythical beasts v Women

And finally, a little closer to home and linking to Central Park in New York.

‘Ribbons’ is a sculpture that has been selected for the Feminist Public Sculpture, Feminist public sculpture. created by Artist Pippa Hale, Pippa Hale is to be sited Quarry Hill in Leeds. The project was conceived by Rachel Reeves, at the time, MP Leeds West, now Chancellor of the Exchequer, in partnership with Leeds City Council, Leeds Arts University and Leeds City College to champion women’s achievements in Leeds and to provide a more balanced gender representation of public sculpture in Leeds. Each ribbon carries the names of 384 Leeds women (nominated via the public).

This is a sculpture that celebrates many women, not the few, both past and present, who have made a contribution to our city. Their names are connected, tied together over space and time in a celebration of womanhood that is embedded in the very fabric of the city.

The title of the work references the ribbons used to decorate female clothes and hair or to denote allegiance to a particular cause (e.g. suffragettes) but also a strip of fabric that binds many parts together.

The work comprises several metal ribbons that weave their way through the city, embedded in pavements and piazzas, rising up in places to create benches and low-level walkways. At Quarry Hill, the ribbons meet, reaching out of the ground to create a central sculpture that appears to swirl and flutter in the wind.

The following is an extract of an Essay by Griselda Pollock (2024) about the Ribbons sculpture which links Leeds to Central Park in New York

Ribbons, ‘reminds me of the ribbon of steel — signifying the words and ideas that changed the world of women — flowing from the mind of white US-American suffrage campaigners Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in a statue by Meredith Bergman who won the 2018 Central Park State Competition in response to the question ‘Where Are the Monumental Women?’

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Take note of any positive statues and artwork you see, all minorities are no longer being overlooked, instead they are being honoured and their contribution to society is being acknowledged and celebrated, and so it should be.

Patricia Spray

August 2024