24
June
2021
|
10:45
Europe/London

Uncertain Futures Installation launches on 24 June

Uncertain Futures is a collaborative artwork, created by women from Manchester’s diverse communities with renowned socially-engaged artist Suzanne Lacy.

UF advisory members on the steps of the Manchester Art Gallery

For over a year, the project at Manchester Art Gallery has explored intersectional issues on paid and unpaid work through the lens of women over 50, focusing on gender, age, race, disability, and class. Uncertain Futures will launch on 24 June 2021 with an installation and programme of events in Manchester Art Gallery.

Developed with the University of Manchester: School of Social Sciences, Department of Law and Manchester Metropolitan University: Department of Social Care and Social Work, Uncertain Futures is an art and research project where the women, all activists and leaders in their communities, have formed an Advisory Group, met weekly over the past 15 months, and stayed connected despite Covid. Working collectively to advocate for policy change,they have identified and made public the issues confronting older women and work, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is an excitement around the project as it takes shape now in an installation at Manchester Art Gallery. Uncertain Futures will host live interviews with 100 women from all walks of life selected by the Advisory Group, with extracts of their conversations displayed on the gallery walls.

The installation, accompanied by a moving soundtrack of their voices by Manchester filmmaker Mark Thomas, will provide a platform for participating women, verify their experiences, and advocate for recognition of their value to society.

Even more women will be invited to small ‘Chai and Chat’ sessions meant to engage migrant, working class, and/or isolated women in the project. Still more are invited to take part through workshops, talks and media presentations open to the general public.

This project began, before Covid, with the question: What does the increase in pension age mean for women over 50? Now, 15 months later, the Advisory Group will go public, through large banners on the front of the Gallery, with this and still more questions:

  • Is her paid, unpaid and care work equally valued? 
  • Does race or migration status affect her future?
  • Post-Covid, will she work again? 

The Advisory Group and their partners have co-designed a unique programme of art, research and advocacy that naturally follows the three pillars of age-friendliness: connectivity, giving a platform and a voice to the issues raised, and celebrating age.

Uncertain Futures has shown the group that the issues that affect women over 50 are what connect them; ageing is a shared experience, whatever their background, heritage and culture, and they are their own best advocates for change.

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