8 June – 12 June

This week’s activities are led by Dr Adele Patrick, co-founder of Glasgow Women’s Library. Please familiarise yourself with the readings and watch Adele’s recorded talk before undertaking the independent group exercise. The talk is divided into short sections and Adele signals good points to pause in case you are unable to watch the whole presentation at once.


Recorded Talk 

Adele Patrick, ‘Growing Your Own: Cultural Organisations for Social Change from the Grass Roots’.

What are the deep challenges for the cultural sector in making meaningful impact and engagement with the ‘easiest to ignore’? Fresh from completing Post (Clore) Fellowship Research exploring feminist intersectional leadership in cultural organisations in Scotland, Italy, Brazil and Kenya, Adele Patrick will bringing provocations, insights and dilemmas from her perspective as a co-founder and Creative Development Manager as Glasgow Women’s Library.

Adele’s recording has pause points built in so feel free to dip in and out:

07:15 About Glasgow Women’s Library

27:00 GWL Approaches and Equality in Progress

55:50  Feminist Leadership

1:07:00 Current Context and ‘Live’ Research at GWL


Essential Reading

  • Adele Patrick, ‘Feminist Leadership: How Naming and Claiming the F Word Can Lead the Cultural Sector out of Equalities “Stuckness”’, 2018. Download here
  • Adele Patrick, ‘Coda’, 2020. Download here

Further Reading


Group Exercise

Self-led

In your groups, generate visions of future ways of creating, working and collaborating with/in cultural organisations that acknowledge existing marginalisation and foster social change, impact and engagement. Please arrange a suitable time and meeting platform amongst yourselves. 

You might choose to respond to (one or more of) the following provocations and questions:

What are collective demands we might make of ourselves as cultural workers and of the institutions that represent culture?

What might the consequences be of a values-led approach to working across the cultural sector (on programming, policy, partnership working, addressing structural in/equality, governance?)

What are the ‘stuck’ aspects of policy, practice, and audience engagement and what might be the key strategies for change making?

Please complete this group exercise in advance of the seminar on 15 June and be prepared to discuss your visions.