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Are We There Yet? A Study Room Guide on Live Art and Feminism Launch event (26 January 2015)Monday 26 January 2015, 7pm This event marks the launch of Are We There Yet? – a Study Room Guide on Live Art and Feminism, curated by Lois Weaver in collaboration with PhD candidate Eleanor Roberts and the Live Art Development Agency (LADA). Provided as a free online resource, this multi-layered, multi-voiced Guide is a key component of LADA’s Restock Rethink Reflect Three project on Live Art and Feminism. Central to Restock, Rethink, Reflect Three has been a research, dialogue and mapping project led by Lois Weaver and supported by Creativeworks London. This project set out to share knowledge and shed new light on contemporary and historical feminist practitioners, particularly those left out of official histories or that have been unrecorded or forgotten about. The project took many forms including the development of the materials LADA holds on Feminist practices in our Study Room research facility and the creation of this new Guide which will help artists, students, activists and thinkers to navigate their way through LADA’s holdings in relation to feminist practices and issues in Live Art, past and present. The Guide features a conversation between Lois Weaver and LADA’s Lois Keidan about the project and their own personal histories of feminism and performance; a critical overview by Eleanor Roberts of the research, dialogue and mapping project; a series of maps created by artists reflecting their own experiences and influences in feminist performance; a How We Did It section by Lois Weaver on her approach to the project and Guide; and lists of resources with catalogue references on materials on feminist performance housed in the Study Room. The event will include an introduction to the Guide, a panel discussion, a short screening programme, and performative presentations. More information on LADA’s Restock, Rethink, Reflect: Restock, Rethink, Reflect is an ongoing series of initiatives for, and about, artists who working with issues of identity politics and cultural difference in radical ways, and which aims to map and mark the impact of art to these issues, whilst supporting future generations of artists through specialized professional development, resources, events and publications. Following the first two Restock, Rethink, Reflect projects on Race (2006-08) and Disability (2009-12), Restock, Rethink, Reflect Three (2013-15) is on Feminism – on the role of performance in feminist histories and the contribution of artists to discourses around contemporary gender politics. Restock, Rethink, Reflect Three has also involved collaborations with UK and European partners on programming, publishing and archival projects, including a LADA curated programme, Just Like a Woman (for City of Women Festival, Slovenia, 2013), the co-publication of re.act.feminism – a performing archive (2014), and the Fem Fresh platform (2014) for emerging feminist practices with Queen Mary University of London. Are We There Yet? – a Study Room Guide on Live Art and Feminism is supported by Creativeworks London, as part of a project to enhance LADA’s Study Room holdings on Live Art and Feminism. Picture credit: Long Table on Live Art and Feminism with Lois Weaver, 2013. |
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Creativeworks London is one of four Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to develop strategic partnerships with creative businesses and cultural organisations, to strengthen and diversify their collaborative research activities and increase the number of arts and humanities researchers actively engaged in research-based knowledge exchange.