Contemporary Co-Production with Historical Collaborative Feminist Precedents: Exploring community-led exhibition-making through The Famous Women Project

Leaper, H

Contemporary Co-Production with Historical Collaborative Feminist Precedents: Exploring community-led exhibition-making through The Famous Women Project

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Leaper, H ORCID: 0000-0001-9025-4896 (2026) Contemporary Co-Production with Historical Collaborative Feminist Precedents: Exploring community-led exhibition-making through The Famous Women Project. Visual Culture in Britain, 23 (1). ISSN 1471-4787

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Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14714787.2026.2617808

Abstract

This article examines The Famous Women Project, a 2019 co‑production initiative at Tate Exchange, through its engagement with three feminist precedents: the Famous Women Dinner Service, Cicely Hamilton’s A Pageant of Great Women, and regional post‑suffrage pageants. It argues that these historically rooted, participatory practices prefigure contemporary co‑production frameworks by modelling democratic intent, equitable collaboration, and valuing diverse forms of knowledge. Analysing the project’s development, partnerships and public‑facing activities, the article demonstrates how co‑production can function simultaneously as method and critique, offering an ethically engaged approach to feminist exhibition‑making and expanding representational possibilities within British arts institutions.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1901 Art Theory and Criticism; 1902 Film, Television and Digital Media; 2102 Curatorial and Related Studies; 3601 Art history, theory and criticism; 3605 Screen and digital media
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > N4390-5098 Exhibitions
Divisions:	Art and Creative Industries
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis
Date of acceptance:	13 January 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	27 February 2026
Date Deposited:	27 Feb 2026 16:16
Last Modified:	27 Feb 2026 16:16
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/14714787.2026.2617808
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28142

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