Equality Festival Releases Six New Creative Commissions for its Fifth Year
Beer and arts equality festival, Women On Tap, is gearing up for year five as a hybrid event, with a combination of virtual and live sessions featured on the 14-event programme. A new addition to the programme for 2021 is a series of exciting paid creative commissions.
A national callout was made for proposals in response to one of four themes relating to beer, pubs and equality. Six varied commissions were selected and will be released on each day across the 5-day festival, with wide ranging content including a podcast, an article and photographic series, embroidery, a short film, a digital drawing, and a set of digital illustrations. All selected creators will be paid by Women On Tap CIC thanks to sponsorship secured for the 2021 festival.
Kicking off the festival, writer and photographer Laura Hadland will release her piece, ‘Portraits from the Pub’ which captures the lived experience of a range of incredible women and illustrates the diverse roles that ‘the pub’ plays. The written piece also features a series of striking embedded photographic portraits.
Following Laura is Simon Abbott with a set of vibrant digital illustrations depicting common perceptions of what a pub is and who it is for — a question he asked of a cross section from his local community. The responses present frank realities about the perception of pubs — including some hard truths about the change still needed to make beer truly for everyone.
‘The Pub That Didn’t Exist’ is a podcast by Joanne Love and Tori Powell of A Women’s Brew. The special episode speaks to the women of Women’s Pint Club beer group about their differing experiences of the lockdowns, their feelings about ‘the pub that didn’t exist’ on Zoom and how they found a sense of togetherness during the pandemic. The podcast also includes some ‘in-person’ chats on the difference between the real life pub and the virtual pub.
Bethany O’Hagan will share her commission ‘Reclaiming The Pub’ — an intricate piece of embroidery. Bethany has taken a traditional ‘old man’s pub’ frontage and recreated it using a typically unpaid women’s craft to make a statement — now women are reclaiming ‘the pub’ for themselves.
‘Public House’ will follow — a short film by Casey Shaw, described as a tongue-in-cheek representation of how much the local boozer really means to a working-class community.
On the final day of the festival Charlotte Trapp will reveal her digital drawing ‘The Sisterhood of Ninkasi’. This is a bold depiction of Ninkasi, the ancient goddess of beer who not only represents the joy of imbibing but also the historical importance of brewing as a female industry.
See more at www.womenontap.co.uk/#festival-2021
