Lifelines

In 2015 I worked in collaboration with the all girls’ Epsom High School and the charity, CGEF (Commonwealth Girls Education Fund) which raises funds to educate girls in the commonwealth countries who otherwise would not have access to learning because of certain barriers. These can be natural catastrophe, living in a war zone, being the sole family carer when parents have died, not having enough for tuition fees, uniform or books, or simply through the gender inequality perpetuated in social and cultural beliefs.

Taking personal accounts of some of the charity’s recipients, the pupils at Epsom High then made comics using textiles to connect with these stories. By reproducing them in a way that required prolonged focus and selecting key sentences and elements of the stories, the pupils said they felt really engaged and empathic toward the stories they were learning about.

Their sewn comics were exhibited at The Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London and were collated and printed into zines to raise awareness to visitors of the museum of the charity’s work, as well as gaining the pupils and Arts Mark Award.

This project was organised by Arts Council England funded initiative Artreach’s ‘6 Artists for 6 Schools’.