Who is our community of artists?
Since we restarted our projects with Sheroes Interventions, we have felt the need to reconnect, both with the artists we have worked with in the past and with new ones joining our community. One of our aims has been to make our Artists Hub flourish and to grow our community consistently, offering platforms to share and exchange ideas (such as Sheroes Thursdays) and planning future gatherings in person to connect, collaborate, and celebrate.
While focusing on funding has helped us move forward, there are moments when we feel almost invisible if we are not running events or don’t have activities on the calendar. Small organisations cannot have it all. Yet, connecting with our community remains at the heart of everything we do.
But who is our community?
This is not only a question for funding applications. It is something we, as an organisation, need to understand deeply.
Since 2018, we have worked across six exhibitions, hosted several online talks, and produced a magazine. We have held space for powerful women’s stories, stories of sharing, feeling, and, in many ways, healing. Artists come and go. Some stop producing when life takes over. And yet, when they are invited again, they feel the pull to create and to connect. Where do they go when they step away? Will they come back? Do they remember us? We do. And after all these years, we’ve discovered that they do too. Their continued appreciation for what we do keeps us going, especially in the low moments.
After so many years, we have met countless women artists. Most of them are not defined by income or recognition, but by persistence, by a sense of justice that they channel through their art. They are driven by the desire to express, to connect, and to use art as a way to make sense of their own world and that of other women, even when life gets in the way. Our community is built on those moments of return, of remembering, and of choosing to create again, together.
Most of our artists are survivors, victims, or advocates; many consider themselves activists, while others do not. They are drawn to the SHEROES COLLECTIVE because it is a platform where they feel free — free to exhibit what they want, to be bold, to be brave — because we all have each other’s backs and move forward together. This kind of solidarity is rare, especially when centuries of violence against women and girls have been normalised or silenced through complicity.
Our community is magical: they turn the invisible into the visible, the painful into the powerful. They shout, protest, and heal through their art. They come from different generations and social backgrounds, because women, no matter how privileged we might be, face the same invisibility as we grow older, the same dismissive labels when we speak against patriarchal norms. We are often called crazy, witches, or difficult; we share the same insults, privately and publicly, and face the same glass ceilings when it comes to pay, rights, and health. And the list goes on.
So, what does our community of artists truly mean to us?
It is not just an artistic network, it is a collective act of resilience. SHEROES COLLECTIVE is an arts organisation, but it is also, deeply and unapologetically, a social and activist space. We are changemakers. Our drive is change, and our focus is women, always inclusive of trans women and non-binary folks.
So far, we have encountered many artists who carry the hunger for justice, the anger of a survivor, and/or the desire of an activist to connect, to heal, and to grow projects together. Let’s keep growing this collective. Let’s unite, speak up, and continue to be powerful and unapologetic.
Thanks to the British Art Network 2025–26 Bursary Award: Connect Stream (Tate & Paul Mellon Centre), we’ve received funding to support research and relationship-building with artists. As part of this, we opened a calendar for artists to book a call with us, a chance to reconnect, share their journeys, and shape what comes next together.
SUPPORT SHEROES COLLECTIVE
SHEROES COLLECTIVE is a small organisation with a big heart. We exist thanks to the passion of artists, educators, and volunteers who believe in art as a tool for gender equality and social justice. If you can, please consider supporting us by donating, spreading the word, or connecting us with potential funders and allies.