Leeds Light Night to celebrate suffragettes with projection
- Published
An illustration of the artwork to be projected on to Leeds Library
An illuminated artwork celebrating two suffragettes is to be projected on to a building as part of a two-day arts festival in Leeds city centre.
Leonora Cohen and Mary Gawthorpe both played a part in the suffrage struggle and came from Leeds.
Leeds library is to have a large artwork called A Certain Amount of Courage projected on to its exterior.
Leeds Light Night, the annual free arts and light festival, is to take place over the first weekend in October.
On the back of the picture is handwritten "after my release from Holloway Prison wearing the prison badge Portcullis with broad arrows in purple, green and white, Leonora Cohen"
Leonora Cohen was a militant campaigner who threw a rock at the window of a government building in 1911.
She was arrested and jailed before again being imprisoned in 1913, this time for hurling an iron bar through a showcase at the Tower of London.
Mary Gawthorpe was a regular speaker at large national suffrage events
Mary Gawthorpe was a regular speaker at huge national suffrage events including a 1908 rally in Hyde Park, London, before a crowd of more than 200,000 people.
Karen Monid has created the digital portrait of the two women. She has also done projections for the 2012 Olympics and the Houses of Parliament.
She said: "Both Leonora and Mary would have seen themselves as quite ordinary women who became part of something extraordinary and through that, they were able to find strengths and talents they never realised they had.
"I think we can all take something from that, the things that are sent to challenge us are very often what helps us grow."
Leeds museums have badges (top) and one of the iron bars, part of a grate, carried by Leonora Cohen at the Tower of London
This year's event is the fourteenth and has installations on moments in history that have been a catalyst for social change, said the council.
The projection on the library is to be one of about 60 installations around the city centre during 4 and 5 October.
A lantern in last year's Light Night parade through Leeds
- Published5 October 2017
- Published6 October 2017
