Jann Haworth & Liberty Blake: Work In Progress

4 Jul 2023-30 Apr 2024

Overview

This seven-panel mural depicting 130 women from British history and culture was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery as part of a three-year project to enhance female representation in its collection.

The mural, by Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake, was inspired by the absence of women in the album cover for the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which Haworth co-created in 1967. It draws together many stencilled depictions of cultural figures – some never before represented at the gallery – into a single image. 

We were delighted to collaborate on the mural through a series of workshops with our Pathways to Wellbeing participants, led by Haworth and Blake on Zoom from their home in Salt Lake City, Utah. Each participant proposed a number of women and then produced a stencilled portrait of one with acrylic paints and paper, many of which are based on paintings or photographs from the National Portrait Galleries collection. 

The mural’s title links it to a wider, on-going project of Haworth’s and Blake’s.

The original collaged work can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery.

Participating Pathways to Wellbeing artists:
Guinevere Lewis
Caroline Spicer
Wendy Harrison
Sarah Dymer
Ian Roberts
Joanne Dyson
Anna-Louise Highley
Maggy Mark
Xid
Karen Cokayne
Sridevi
O. Lee
Amanda Bayliss
Josie Ballantyne
Steven Edgar
Debbie Beacham