The Mrs Hughes Award

DONT FORGET TO EMAIL ME WITH YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS SO I CAN SEND PRINT AND DETAILS . email sealassjackspratt@ahoo.co.uk subject Mrs Hughes award.

This site is set up to make a fund available for older women artists going through change, a change in their career, physical change, change in attitude, workload and creativity. This fund will enable them to embrace change and continue producing art. they have already been quiet instigators who have dedicated their lives to the arts and social change, have inspired, influenced and shifted the paradigm of the arts in Lincolnshire and beyond!

Those who have believed in inclusion, equality, participation and relevance when there was none and fought through disbelief, elitism, exclusion putting themselves in extreme or difficult situations, quietly without fuss and with a smile and good humour, producing meaningful quality arts. This was new, exciting and pioneering which put fire in the belly of these determined women, but now they are abandoned from the very community they helped create. Now in their dotage (past menopause) no longer considered useful other than as unpaid mentors. Some struggling due to their giving and receiving less than they deserved in order to make change, slowly and significantly, now living only on respect.

They were operating in a very different landscape, where working with communities, people with disabilities and those with mental health issues were disregarded in the arts world, and where these women were not considered artists in their own right by the elite, which penetrated every aspect of the “official” art world. Of course it’s not just women who did this but it appears that a larger percentage of women have not benefited from their efforts.

Now significant changes have happened and these things are written into applications to guarantee artists today make relevant work. The movement of community arts has enabled the now termed “social engagement and relationship arts” to emerge. It has made jobs, workshops and opportunities and has become part of academic training. So there you have it you bright young things… Now, for respect I was talking about…..we need a little more…hence The Mrs Hughes Award, a Justgiving site where donations from all genders are welcome. Contributors to the site will receive a specifically designed print from me. The funds will go into a pot which will be managed by the successful nominees, those selected so far are Wendy Bullar, Lena Sass, Lesley Stableford, Carol Parker, Sue Auty others may be nominated for consideration, so please donate and nominate…..

How it works: You donate to the pot, and you can also nominate someone if you wish. The contributor and The nominee will receive a specially designed print "The Mrs Hughes Award". The nominee must be an older woman ( over 55) who has made a considerable contibution to community/socially engaged arts. The intention is to make a fund available. The nominees will decide how this fund is spent.

Remember contributors, contact me to get your print sealassjackspratt@yahoo.co.uk or leave a message on Justgiving page