CityLife

Charlotte Newson's Emmeline Pankhurst - Manchester Art Gallery

A photo montage of Emmeline Pankhurst (Charlotte Newson)

Few women have become an emblem for the battle of the sexes to the extent that the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst has become.

Manchester born, Emmeline established the Suffragette movement that campaigned for voting rights for women in Britain.

Raised by politically astute parents, Emmeline was a mother of five who was refused membership of normal political parties.

And so, she sought representation through political activism and campaigned to establish a voice for herself, and women like her, who wanted to participate in political decisions, speak freely and enjoy the same education afforded to men.

Her legacy, achieved after years of suffering the indignity of arrest and imprisonment, was equality for women all over the country.

In tribute to her, and to mark International Women’s Day on Monday, Manchester Art Gallery has commissioned a unique photo montage portrait of Emmeline created by artist Charlotte Newson.

The montage consists of hundreds of photographs of inspirational females chosen by women from all over the world and donated to Charlotte for the work. There are known faces from past and present, but mostly people contributed images of their mothers, grandmothers, daughters, friends and colleagues.

Created as a public piece of work, the mosaic is on display at the gallery from tomorrow until May 9, but commemorative posters will also be put up all over the city.

The poster is part of the gallery’s Women Like You project and exhibition, commissioned by the city council and organised in partnership with the Pankhurst Centre, and includes contributions from many Mancunian girls and women.

Students at Withington Girls’ School play a particularly important role in the show as they have created a short computer animation with photographs of women who they also find inspirational.

The girls chose restaurateurs and English queens in their animation looking at women who have paved the way to a richer, fuller and fairer life for British ­females. Their involvement ties in neatly with Charlotte Newson’s mosaic as among the many faces that make up the Emmeline Pankhurst portrait is a picture of Withington Girls’ School’s own head teacher, Janet Pickering.

Opens on March 6 at Manchester Art Gallery, until May 9, 2010. Free.