Preview & Opening Celebration:

Join us Thursday, July 7th (6-9pm) for a celebration of the diverse cultures involved in this project, with snacks and dishes prepared by the group and a chance to preview the artworks and meet the artists. Free & family friendly, open to all to drop-in!

‘To Stand in the Full Sun‘ curated by Nell Cardozo presents a vibrant and large-scale installation exploring collaboration and play through abstract colour and form. The exhibition and artwork is co-produced by artist Beth Shapeero and participants from NGO Empower Women for Change with 16 Nicholson Street and a film by Aga Paulina Młyńczak.

The bold works on display in this exhibition reflect the dynamic women who created them with expansive screen prints that embrace risk-taking, confidence-building, friendship, intercultural exchange, and co-production across long-term processes – through the lens of abstraction, colour and form. The result is an exciting, bright and immersive visitor experience.

Process

In the ‘Freedom in Abstraction, Power in Creativity’ workshop series, artist Beth Shapeero led participants from EWFC to observe and trust their creative instincts and attune their senses to colour and form. 

They took part in a progressive series of activities including automatic painting, using photography to generate compositions, practising different ways of creating abstract drawing and painting. The workshops were designed to build confidence in participants leading to the creation of bold and large collaborative screen-printed works. Visit our website’s ‘Community‘ page for first-hand reflections on how our activities and workshops unfolded.

A key aspect of the project and workshops was the provision of childcare during the sessions. The ground floor of 16NSt became an energetic workshop space for young people while the women were given headspace and time to focus on their own artistic development.

Participants applied the concepts and skills mastered in the workshops at textile printing studio Print Clan, where they utilised advanced skills and techniques in screen printing to collaboratively create the large-scale installation exhibited in ‘To Stand in the Full Sun’. 

Empower Women for Change

‘Empower Women For Change’ (EWFC) is open to all women, and is inspiring and empowering women from diverse backgrounds including New Scots, ethnic minorities, refugees and asylum seekers through advancing their leadership and active citizenship in all aspects of life in Scotland. Their work is empowering Glasgow’s multicultural women in: heritage, climate change, food security, and skills. 

16 Nicholson Street worked together with our community partners Kaneez Fizza and Lababa Navqi and artist Beth Shapeero to produce a dynamic collaborative exhibition through a series of workshops that we co-designed with the EWFC volunteers in mind. 

The exhibition is open weekends (Fri-Sun) July 8- July 24th, 12pm-6pm, and is free & open to all. Drop-in welcome, no registration required. Join us at the gallery for an exhibition preview & opening celebration Thursday, July 7th, 6-9pm.

Visit

Credits

Lead Curator: Nell Cardozo

Artists:

Amina Nadeem

Irum Majeed

Zayna Habib

Nasreen Iqbal

Iram Zobairi

Nahla

Zohara

Reem

Layla

Fathima

Zahra

Zaineb

Rosa

Sakeena Sheikh

Mahdiya

Fathima Shihama

Partners: 

Empower Women for Change
Workshop co-facilitators: Kaneez Fizza and Lababa Naqvi
Print Clan textile studio

Artist/ Project Facilitator: Beth Shapeero

Assistant Curator and Video Artist: Aga Paulina Młyńczak

Funded by Creative Scotland and the Awards for All fund from the National Lottery, with additional funding provided by the Glasgow Connected Arts Network (GCAN)