ABOUT ‘WHOSE MENOPAUSE?’
In November 2022 I was awarded £26,651 through Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants to deliver ‘Whose menopause?’ an inclusive socially engaged photography pilot programme of work.
Working in partnership with Bolton at Home and supported by NHS Bolton CCG and Indigo Gender Service, this inclusive socially engaged pilot project began in January 2023 and uses photography to explore, document and share people’s experiences of menopause in Bolton.
It’s a 6-month pilot project, which involves delivering 10 weeks of socially engaged workshops with three different groups. The ultimate aim is to explore ways in which we can use photography to reduce stigma around menopause. This pilot brings a range of LGBTQI+, health, and place-based partners together to test and inform a new model of working.
I’m working with City of Sanctuary Bolton (a creative writing women’s group at Bolton Library), Butterflies, a women’s support group based in Breightmet (ranked in the top 10% of most deprived areas in England). A third group of members from the LGBTQIA+ community will take place in Bolton town centre (and on a 1-1/online basis) with a particular focus on exploring the typical heteronormative and gendered narrative of menopause.
The pilot also involves drawing on the archive collection at the Wellcome Collection in London, and working with a range of academics at The University of Bristol and The University of Leeds to provide stimulus material for our conversations. Watch me talk about using the Wellcome’s collection in a creative and collaborative way.
If you’re based in Bolton and would like to find out more about the project or are interested in getting involved - either as a participant or partner – please get in touch. I’ll share more information about the project over the next few months.
My new project is supported using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Additional match funding and support in kind is provided by Bolton at Home and Indigo Gender Service.
National Lottery Project Grants is the Arts Council’s open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects. The fund supports thousands of individual artists, community, and cultural organisations thanks to National Lottery investment. National Lottery players raise over £30 million for good causes each week, funding arts, heritage, sports, voluntary and charity projects around the UK. Over £43 billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery began in 1994.
