Six finalists in contest to design suffragette statue
SHORTLISTED DESIGNS FOR MONUMENT TO HONOUR VOTES ACTIVIST EMMELINE PANKHURST ARE UNVEILED
SHE was the heroine who helped women win the right to vote...
And these are the six shortlisted designs for a new Manchester statue which will commemorate suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst.
A statue of the Moss Side-born activist is set to be unveiled in St Peter’s Square on International Women’s Day in 2019.
And some of Britain’s top sculptors have been fighting it out to win the commission to create the statue.
Pankhurst’s great-granddaughter Helen met with the sculptors last year to share her vision for the tribute, before whittling the contenders down.
Half a dozen artists were then given £5,000 to design prototypes, which were revealed at Westminster this week. Sean HedgesQuinn, Martin Jennings, Hazel Reeves, Nick Roberson, Amelia Rowcroft and Roxy and Steve Winterburn showed off their designs to MPs and members of the public.
Pankhurst will be the first woman to be immortalised in statue form in Manchester for more than 100 years.
More than half of online voters in the WoManchester Statue Project poll chose the suffragette leader. The project was launched in 2014 by Coun Andrew Simcock in 2014.
The other nominees were author Elizabeth Gaskell, Manchester councillor Margaret Ashton, antiracism campaigner Louise Da-Cocodia, writer Elizabeth Raffald and MP Ellen Wilkinson.
Pankhurst’s great-granddaughter Helen said the statue will be a rallying point for the city’s modern feminists.
The activist, born in Moss Side in 1858, was the founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union.
She held the first meeting at her home in Chorlton-on-Medlock in October 1903, which has since been transformed into the The Pankhurst Centre museum.
Maquettes of the six designs were on show for MPs and members of the public, who were able to cast a vote for their favourite. An expert panel will decide on the winner.
The maquettes will be on show at HOME in Manchester city centre today before being taken to Manchester town hall for the public to see on Saturday.
They’ll then be sold off, with cash going back into the project.
Withington MP Jeff Smith said: “Like most cities, Manchester has not done enough to recognise the contribution that women have made in creating the society we live in today. I’m delighted to support the campaign to change that.
“Emmeline Pankhurst was worthy winner of and it was fantastic that Helen was able to join us i to celebrate her great-grandmother’s remarkable life.”
Helen Pankhurst said: “The unveiling was a timely symbol in the build up to the centenary celebrations of the one hundredth anniversary of women partially securing the vote in 1918. There is much to celebrate in terms of the progress in women’s rights over the last hundred years. However, there is also much more to be done, in the social, economic and political spheres.”