A NEW exhibition coming to Stalybridge’s Victoria Market Hall will showcase the experiences of local women, exploring stories around reproductive healthcare, identity and life-changing moments.
Unheard Stories, created by Mossley-based arts organisation Cabasa CIC, will bring together more than 30 artworks for a free weekend exhibition.
The collection has been created through creative workshops involving more than 100 women since 2020, with participants aged between 18 and 80 sharing their experiences through art.
The exhibition on Friday, July 3, and Saturday, July 4, features a range of work including body art portraits, textiles, sculpture, audio stories, poetry and film, with each piece created collaboratively alongside local visual artists.
One of the centrepieces of the exhibition is The Living Dress, a striking sculpture standing almost 5m tall. Created by artist Iola Weir, the aluminium and steel “mother earth” figure wears a large gown in shades of red, orange and pink, hand dyed using traditional madder, a colourant made from a plant root.
Women from Seriously Crafty, Women’s Welfare and Soul Sisters all helped create the dress, which was first displayed at the Rochdale Borough Festival of Ideas in March 2024.
Other featured projects include Metamorphosis, which explored pregnancy through body painting, and Endomorphosis, which shared the stories of women living with endometriosis. The first Endomorphosis photography collection was shown at Gallery Oldham in 2023, while a new set of images will be shown publicly for the first time.
Visitors will also be able to see Still She Rises, an outdoor mural exploring women’s access to reproductive healthcare. A film documenting artists Rhian Kempadoo-Millar, Lizzie Rigby and Emily Wood creating the mural during Rochdale’s Common Walls Festival in 2025 will also feature.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a soundtrack of anonymous first-person accounts, giving visitors the opportunity to hear directly from women about their experiences.
The projects included in Unheard Stories have been supported by funders including the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and Postcode Neighbourhood Trust.
Emily Wood, artistic director at Cabasa CIC, said: “Over the last six years we have worked with over 100 amazing women on cross-generational creative projects.
“We now invite you to hear their stories and celebrate the people who have shaped this revealing and emotive body of work.”
Unheard Stories takes place at Stalybridge’s Victoria Market Hall (formerly Civic Hall) on Trinity Street on Friday, July 3 (10am-5pm) and Saturday, July 4 (11am-4pm). Entry is free.