Celebrating Women Artists at Queensbridge Primary School
Last week we had the privilege of stepping out of the workshop and into the classroom. We spent the day at Queensbridge Primary School in Hackney to mark International Women’s Day, talking about women artists — their stories, their styles, and why representation and creativity matter.
We began by asking a simple question: Can you name a famous artist?
Then another: How many of them are women? It opened up an important conversation.
For generations, women weren’t always allowed into art schools, weren’t consistently shown in galleries, and weren’t always taken seriously. International Women’s Day is a moment to celebrate achievements, recognise overlooked voices, and ensure that girls and women are given equal space to create, lead and inspire.
Five Artists, Five Lessons
We introduced the children to five inspirational artists, each with something powerful to teach us about life and art:
Frida Kahlo — courage and identity
Kaylene Whiskey — celebrating the women who inspire us
Caroline Walker — quiet strength in everyday life
Lubaina Himid — reclaiming stories missing from history
Katherine Bernhardt — bold colour and fearless expression
We spoke about courage, identity, colour, quiet strength and bold expression. And then we handed the creativity over to them.
The students created portraits inspired either by these artists or by important women in their own lives — mums, sisters, grandmas, carers and teachers.
As you can see - the results were fantastic - joyful, expressive, full of pattern, colour and personality.
The work will be displayed at the school on Friday March 6th, and we’ll also be using it as part of a future fundraiser for the school — so stay tuned for more details.
In the current climate, where the arts are increasingly cut back within the education system, it feels more important than ever to remind the artists of tomorrow that their voices matter, as does honouring the women — past and present — who shape our world.
We strongly encourage anyone working with budding young artists to consider holding their own exhibition. It doesn’t have to be complicated — what matters is creating space for expression and celebration. We’ve made our lesson plan available as a free downloadable PDF. If you use it with your children or class, please do email us photos of the results — we would absolutely love to see them!
Happy International Women’s Day!