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Melanie Kyles (third from the left) leads a Women of Tyneside workshop at the Fashion Lab in Ampersand Inventions, Commercial Union House, Newcastle upon Tyne. Image courtesy of Melanie Kyles
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Work in progress at a Women of Tyneside workshop at the Fashion Lab in Ampersand Inventions, Commercial Union House, Newcastle upon Tyne. Image courtesy of Melanie Kyles
Exhibition
Worth It
16 May 2019 – 25 May 2019
Regular hours
- Thursday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Friday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Saturday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Wednesday
- 12:00 – 17:00
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- Orbis Community
- 65 High Street
- Gateshead
England - NE8 2AP
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Nearest bus station: Gateshead Interchange
- Nearest Metro station: Gateshead Metro
- Nearest Railway station: Newcastle Central
‘Worth It’ focuses on a collective textile work created by a diverse group of women in a series of workshops exploring and expressing their experiences of being a woman on Tyneside today.
About
The exhibition explores the theme of ‘Body Image and Identity’ and is presented as part of the Festival of Women, produced by the Women of Tyneside project.
Women of Tyneside has collaborated with local embroidery artist Melanie Kyles to deliver a series of workshops for female participants beginning in the costume archives of the Discovery Museum in Newcastle, followed by practical sessions in The Fashion Lab at Ampersand Inventions in Commercial Union House, Newcastle.
With positive emotions associated with favourite outfits and the power of dress, women visitors are invited to participate in the exhibition by noting the stories behind their ‘Worth It’ outfits onto postcards. This growing collection of postcards will be displayed within the exhibition, joining the women whose voices and creative input are part of the installation. For the evening of The Late Shows on Saturday 18 May, visitors are also encouraged to come along in their ‘Worth It’ outfits, because, after all, they are worth it!
Women of Tyneside is a two-year community project at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM), funded by Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, to celebrate and value women and girls. Marking one hundred years since the Representation of People Act 1918, which allowed (only some) women to vote in the UK for the first time, the project highlights and discusses important issues for women and girls living in Tyneside today, adding their voices, notable objects and creative input to the TWAM collections and archives, forming their first ever ‘Women’s Collection’.
To find out more information about the full range of events in the Festival of Women, held across the region from March to June 2019, visit: www.womenoftyneside.org
Melanie Kyles was born in 1990 in Newcastle upon Tyne and lives in Gateshead. She takes what are usually regarded as gender-specific materials, such as fabrics and crystal, to subvert notions of economy and practicality traditionally associated with the ‘decorative’ arts. Kyles has co-curated two exhibitions at Vane, ‘WO/’ (2018) and ‘Exposing Form’ (2017). Both exhibitions celebrated International Women’s Day and showcased work on the themes of the feminine experience, identity and expectations through the perspective of female-identifying artists and their work.
