Women’s Library:
Guest Curators
22 January 2022 – 26 March 2023
Georgiana Verney was a champion for women’s reading, education and suffrage.
We invited three organisations to contribute new books to our Women’s library. Inspired by Georgiana’s passion for sharing knowledge and advancing education for all.
The three bookshelves displayed the chosen book and information about the organisation that chose it.
Thanks to Compton Verney’s Youth Advisory Panel, MakeSpaceForGirls & Human Library for their contributions.
Make Space for Girls
BOOK: Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
by Caroline Criado Perez
Invisibility takes many forms, and only the invisible can fully appreciate their predicament.
What’s odd about women’s invisibility is that women aren’t a minority. They are the majority. Criado Perez shows that women seem to live in a society built around men. From a lack of streetlights to allow us to feel safe, to an absence of workplace childcare facilities, almost everything seems to have been designed for the average white working man and the average stay-at-home white woman. Her answer is to think again, to collect more data, study that data, and ask women what they want.
Contributor: MAKE SPACE FOR GIRLS
Make Space for Girls campaigns for facilities and public spaces for teenage girls.
Parks, play equipment and public spaces for teenagers are currently designed for the default male. Provision is almost entirely in terms of skate parks, BMX tracks, football pitches and MUGAs, which are used almost entirely by boys. Girls are never asked what they might want! This absence has important implications for how active girls are, for their health in later life, and for how they see themselves as belonging in public spaces. Providing for girls is a legal requirement under the Equality Act 2010. It’s time to make space for girls.
CV’S thoughts:
Compton Verney is transforming their outdoor spaces over the next two years. We want to create exciting & imaginative playful spaces for young and old. We are dedicated to offering opportunities to interact with creative play spaces and interventions around the site. We work closely with our local communities & organisations on our projects, to ensure that what we’re proposing meets their needs & responds to contemporary research. Compton Verney is dedicated to providing inclusive experiences.
Youth Advisory Panel
Introduction to the book:
As one of the most exposing texts of the 20th century, Silent Spring focuses on the chemical industry’s widespread destruction of wildlife. In equal parts terrifying as it is deeply informative, Carson gives an unflinching account of the true consequences of human activity on changing environments. For years, Carson’s personal and scientific reputation were attacked, with attempts by the chemical industry to outrightly ban Silent Spring, disregarding her as a dangerous reactionary. Despite attempts to undermine her work, Silent Spring remains one of the most influential books of our time, determining government policy and continuing to inspire global ecological movements.
Why ‘Silent Spring’ and Why Rachel Carson:
Silent Spring encompasses many of the current issues facing the climate crisis; in the text, and reactions to its publication, we see common themes such as the spread of misinformation, destruction of natural environments, and humanity’s role in accelerating environmental damage. By featuring Silent Spring alongside the Digital Biosphere, the Panel hopes to provide a scientific understanding of human activity and its impact on the environment, while also featuring a key text of the ecological movement. Acting as an important visual reminder of a crisis often only expressed in statistics, the Digital Biosphere raises awareness of the stark realities faced by climate change, depicted in Compton Verney’s own natural surroundings.
Chapter 2: “The soil exists in a state of constant change, taking part in cycles that have no beginning and no end. New materials are constantly being contributed as rocks disintegrate, as organic matter decays, and as nitrogen and other gases are brought down in rain from the skies. At the same time other materials are being taken away, borrowed for temporary use by living creatures.”
Chapter 17: “The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man”
“Man has lost the capacity to foresee
and to forestall. He will end by
destroying the earth.”
Human Library
The book: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches;
By Audre Lorde
A collection of essential essays and speeches written by Audre Lorde, a writer who focuses on the particulars of her identity: Black woman, lesbian, poet, activist, cancer survivor, mother, and feminist. This collection, now considered a classic volume of Lorde’s most influential works of non-fiction prose, has had a groundbreaking impact in the development of contemporary feminist theories. Lorde explores the complexities of intersectional identity, while explicitly drawing from her personal experiences of oppression to include sexism, heterosexism, racism, homophobia, classism, and ageism.
The Contributor: Human Library
The Human Library® is, in the true sense of the word, a library of people. We host events where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books and have conversations they would not normally have access to. Every human book from our bookshelf, represent a group in our society that is often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin etc.
WE PUBLISH PEOPLE AS OPEN BOOKS
Cv THOUGHTS:
In 2021 Compton Verney and TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre appointed three Inclusive Histories Research Fellows to conduct primary research to investigate and explore new dimensions of our permanent collections. They researched and implemented a defined project – considering inclusive histories in relation the permanent collections – enhancing our knowledge and understanding, whilst providing suggestions for further collections research and engagement projects. As part of our mission, we are committed to expanding and enhancing our knowledge and understanding of our permanent collections. Fellows also participated in knowledge exchange workshops with a Compton Verney advisory board to identify: cross-collection themes for inclusion in new visitor interpretation; areas for further research.
We are also proud to be hosting several Human Library events between January to June 2022 in our ground floor collections.