Women, art and activism

The first women’s liberation conference in the UK, Miss World protests, the formation of the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the politics of who cleans the house are all explored in a new exhibition at Tate Britain. Whilst activism and art linked to ecology by 50 women and gender-non-conforming artists are on display at the Barbican Centre in London and eco-feminist Monica Sjöö (1938-2005) is celebrated in a show opening at Modern Art Oxford. Naomi Paxton is joined by the academics Sophie Oliver and Ana Baeza Ruiz, by Alona Pardo curator of the Re/sisters exhibition at the Barbican, and by Marlene Smith, a member of the BLK art group in Britain, who has helped pull together the Tate show.

Producer: Julian Siddle

Women in Revolt: Art, Activism and the Women’s movement in the UK 1970–1990 runs at Tate Britain until 7 April 2024.

Monica Sjöö: The Great Cosmic Mother runs at Modern Art Oxford from 18 November to 25 February 2024.

RE/SISTERS A Lens on Gender and Ecology runs at the Barbican Centre, London until Sun 14 Jan 2024.

Ana Baeza Ruiz is at Loughborough University working as the Research Associate for the project Feminist Art Making Histories - an oral history of women's art.

Sophie Oliver teaches literature at the University of Liverpool, specialising in modernist writing by women and in links between art and writing. Both are New Generation Thinkers on the scheme run by the BBC and the AHRC to put research on the radio.