Working with Sleeping Giants and the Empowering Women Panel
In late 2023 and early 2024, I had the privilege of working with Sleeping Giants' Empowering Women Panel to co-develop a creative response to their peer research on the cost-of-living crisis. Over six months, we translated lived experiences into powerful artworks through participatory arts sessions, culminating in a visit to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in February 2024. There, the panel highlighted the stark gap between policy and reality when it comes to women, girls, and non-binary people's experiences of financial hardship.
For six months, I worked alongside the panel, supporting them in transforming their lived realities into artistic expressions. Together, we created a book, a banner, and an interactive iceberg in collaboration with Alie Rutherford, each collaborative piece amplifying the voices of those most impacted by the crisis while incorporating findings from their peer research.
The book became a deeply personal and poignant project. Each panel member contributed pages using their preferred artistic mediums, documenting their experiences of the cost-of-living crisis in ways that words and numbers alone could not capture. The book serves as both a research document and a collective act of resistance, offering policymakers an unfiltered glimpse into the realities they so often overlook. Below is a small selection, but you can view all the artwork that was made here.
Too often, women find themselves trapped in a web of intersecting oppressions. Add being a single mum, having a disability, or simply trying to survive under policies that do not account for real-life struggles, and the weight becomes unbearable. The truth is, most of us are only one missed paycheck away from slipping through the cracks. How many times have we turned to each other, half-joking, "Should we just start an OnlyFans?" whilst fat cats who couldn't tell you the price of a family supermarket shop pocket record bonuses and scheme up new tax evasion tricks. The system is designed to keep us poor, wages stagnate while the cost of living soars, childcare remains unaffordable, and gatekeepers offer nothing.
Holding Power to Account
February 2024 marked a pivotal moment: the Empowering Women Panel and the National Advisory Council of Women and Girls directly challenged Scottish ministers on the true impact of the crisis, urging intersectional policy changes. Seeing the artworks projected onto the overhead screen, in a room full of decision-makers, was a surreal and affirming experience. Hopefully, this is just the beginning, and a step towards a more equitable future for women, girls, and non-binary people who continue to bear the brunt of financial cutbacks and systemic neglect. You can read more about the work and the full report created through the project here.
The Banner: A Testament to Resilience
This collaborative banner was also created with the Empowering Women Panel. Through multiple sessions, we conceptualised and crafted a visual narrative that reflects the suffocating nature of red tape, bureaucracy, and the lived reality of navigating the cost-of-living crisis. The piece layers collage and mixed media to represent an overwhelming flood of information, the fear of missing out on critical support, and the systemic fractures that keep women struggling. A chain motif runs through the banner, symbolising both the strength of community and the broken links in public services. At its centre, a circle represents a vision of nurturing equity, offering hope in the midst of adversity.
Why Art? Why Participatory Art?
The concept of producing "something of value" and that being the only thing worth producing is something designed to keep us busy, tying our identities and self worth to job titles, status and income brackets. But who defines value, and on what terms? Are stay at home mums and disabled women worth less to society, or are people simply become programmed to think that way?
Participatory art rejects the capitalist, masculinist structures that historically celebrate the 'heroic' singular (often male) artist, businessman, capitalist strictures which prioritise profit over people. A participatory approach prioritises collective creation, amplifying voices that are typically sidelined. Women’s experiences, whether in art, healthcare, policy, or the workplace, are too often systemically devalued. Through this project, I sought to counter that, embracing an intersectional feminist approach that recognises lived experience as expertise, as intrinsically valuable.
Having been raised by a single mother in my teens following an economic recession, and experiencing financial hardship myself, I connected deeply with the stories shared in these sessions. What gives me hope is seeing women from all walks of life finding their voices, advocating for change, and standing together in solidarity. Systemic shifts may take time, but one thing is certain: women are fighters. We bear children, we work, we resist and we persist. We always have. We continue serving up smiles whilst also tirelessly advocating for ourselves. It has been brilliant, powerful, and deeply enlightening to work with Sleeping Giants and the Empowering Women Panel, helping them express their realities through art. And in these spaces, in these moments, we are absolutely bossing it (and not for the benefit of instrumental capitalism, but for each other).
