The Clothesline Project
Baptist Union of Great Britain
Description:
The Clothesline Project is a visual display of T-shirts designed by women survivors, with graphic messages and illustrations, to increase awareness of the impact of violence against women and girls. The display also celebrates a woman's strength and courage to overcome the past.
The T-shirts are hung side-by-side on the Clothesline, as though the survivors were standing there themselves, shoulder to shoulder, bearing witness to the violence that is committed against women on a daily basis.
The exhibition is relatively easy to transport and to display. It can stand alone, be used as a compelling visual aid to accompany a talk, workshop, or discussion, or be used as a focus for worship.
How it was done:
Fliers describing the Project and calling for T-shirts were produced and sent out to a wide range of ecumenical networks. The Clothesline Project was also publicised at the Baptist Assembly in 1998.
The fliers contained the following information:
"You are invited to send in a T-shirt of durable colour, preferably to correspond to the following colour coding, which is designed so that the Clothesline will be a visual representation of the nature of the violence experienced by women.
Should you wish a T-shirt to be supplied for you, please contact the address below. You may need more than one T-shirt. Should this be the case, please indicate this in your request.
Please represent on the T-shirt(s) what violence was committed. You can use drawing, writing, embroidery or glueing. You may want to pin some things, such as ribbon, onto the T-shirt. If you use names, please only use first names:
WHITE | For women who have died as a result of violence committed simply because they were women |
RED OR ORANGE | For women who have been raped or sexually assaulted |
YELLOW OR BEIGE | For women who have been battered or assaulted because they are women |
BLUE OR GREEN | For women who are survivors of incest or child sexual abuse |
PURPLE OR LILAC | For women who have experienced emotional or psychological abuse |
Any other colour which has special significance for youAddress to which the T-shirts are to be sent and where further information can be obtained:The Clothesline ProjectNorthern Baptist CollegeBrighton GroveRusholmeMANCHESTERM14 5JPUNITED KINGDOM"The Clothesline Project is co-ordinated from the Northern Baptist College in Manchester, England (address above). T-shirts have been collected over a period of 6 years; the project remains open, so new Tshirts are always welcome Pictures of some of the collected T-Shirts:
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