Somerset Art Works

This banner was influenced by original suffrage banners, Thalia Campbell’s 1980s Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp banners, and Somerset’s culture and identity. Elements from an original Weston-Super-Mare Suffragist's banner were used as a starting point for the composition.

The slogan, 'Make More Noise', forms the centre point of the banner. It comes from a speech by Emmeline Pankhurst and sums up the sentiment of the suffrage processions - a call to women to be more visible, to make a spectacle, to make their voices heard. Glastonbury Festival wristbands have also been incorporated into the design. The festival is intertwined with local identity, protest and alternative ways of living. Follow the story of making the banner: somersetprocessions.wordpress.com

“We wanted the finished banner to represent all our voices and ideas. Embroidery feels like a good metaphor for the suffrage movement; where small individual contributions achieved a huge shift in opinion.”
Dorcas Casey, Lead Artist.

Somerset Art Works is a registered charity and membership organisation. Somerset’s only countywide agency dedicated to developing the visual arts.

Dorcas Casey studied at Winchester School of Art and works as a sculptor based in Jamaica Street Studios in Bristol. She is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, having been awarded a bursary from them in 2013. She won the Public Speaks Award in the Broomhill National Sculpture Prize and her work features in the book The Language of Mixed Media Sculpture published in 2014. Recently she exhibited her work at Banksy’s Dismaland in Weston-Super-Mare and was selected for the Columbia Threadneedle prize exhibition in London.