Contemporary Co-Production with Historical Collaborative Feminist Precedents: Exploring community-led exhibition-making through The Famous Women Project

Published in Visual Culture in Britain Volume 23, 2025 – Issue 2-3

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This article examines The Famous Women Project, a 2019 co‑production initiative at Tate Exchange, through its engagement with three feminist precedents: the Famous Women Dinner Service, Cicely Hamilton’s A Pageant of Great Women, and regional post‑suffrage pageants. It argues that these historically rooted, participatory practices prefigure contemporary co‑production frameworks by modelling democratic intent, equitable collaboration, and valuing diverse forms of knowledge.

Analysing the project’s development, partnerships and public‑facing activities, the article demonstrates how co‑production can function simultaneously as method and critique, offering an ethically engaged approach to feminist exhibition‑making and expanding representational possibilities within British arts institutions.

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Image: Champions of Liberty: Marai Larasi from ‘The Modern Pantheon’ – ceramic plates designed and decorated by students from the University of Central Lancashire Fine Art BA programme, 2019. Copyright Amy Binns and Hana Leaper.