II Conversations with Aldershot Group Zoommeeting, 2021 Dear Readers The seeds for Conversations with Aldershot began in 2019. I wanted tomake work about the lives and challenges of women, about ordinary experiences that may not be heard. I didn’t want to work in archives or art galleries, I wanted to speak to people. So I began working with artists, and local women, here in Aldershot and further afield to see if by collaborating with artists AND local women, we can increase access to art and to the ‘art world’. As Aldershot is often little noticed in the wider world, I also wanted to find a way for our voices to be heard. Then… along came the pandemic. We were locked away. Hidden evenmore. Beautiful things started happening as well as absolutely awful things. I noticed other towns were recording this in some way and wondered what we could do here. In the summer of 2020 I approached a local friend Candice Camacho to work withme, and applied for a grant fromArts Council England. Our plan was tomake work with local residents to look at our experiences and create artistic responses as well as thinking about ideas around how to reduce barriers to art. This was to be co-creation. Each of us making something and working together to make work too. During lockdown of winter 2020–2021 a group of 7 women led by myself and Candice met weekly on zoom for over 3months.
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