Art Centre Penryn Announces 50 Women of Cornwall for New Art Collection

Following a call out for suggestions in 2024 that resulted in hundreds of women, past and present, real and fictional, being nominated by the public, Art Centre Penryn, Cornwall’s new creative space, has now announced the brilliant women who will be represented in a new permanent art collection of 50 ceramic plates, celebrating and highlighting their fantastically varied achievements.

The aim was to select a diverse group of women, from across ages and backgrounds, representing a wide range of careers, activism and volunteering roles. These incredible women span the worlds of sport, the arts, science, agriculture, mental health, politics and everyday life. Their Cornishness might be fluid, but whatever these women have done, they or their achievements have a special connection with this unique area. There are well-known names alongside unsung heroes and Art Centre Penryn hopes that everyone will be able to find inspiration among this
impressive group.

Barbara Hepworth, Daphne du Maurier and double Olympic champion, Helen Glover are well known for their Cornish links but included too in the Women of Cornwall list are World Para Surfing Champion, Charlotte Banfield from Falmouth; the UK’s first professor of Human Sexuality, Tamsin Wilton from Redruth; and Annie Williams, a headmistress turned suffragette, born in Feock in 1860, who became an important figure in the suffrage movement, spending a month in Holloway Prison for her activism. There is also: Madame Hawke, a widow with six children, who bought a
knitting machine in 1905 and within a few years was employing 450 people and supplying Debenhams in London from her Newquay factory; and the amazing story of Mary Kelynack (1776–1855) a fish hawker who, excited by the wealth of industrial innovation on show in the Great Exhibition of 1851, walked on foot for five weeks from Newlyn to London at the age of 75. Her journey attracted such attention thatby the time she arrived she was a celebrity and met with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Women of Cornwall also celebrates important work by women in the county today. Such as Dina Holderfrom The Women’s Centre Cornwall, a charity providing specialist support to women and girls living with the impact of abuse; Joyte Brown, co-founder of Black Voices Cornwall whose mission is to provide practical and lasting support for the Duchy to be anti-racist; and Maren Hallenga who, with her twin sister Kris, set up the charity CoppaFeel!, a breast cancer awareness charity for younger people, following Kris’ diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer at the age of 23.

The full list of women can be found below and details on them and all of the inspirational suggestions can be found at www.artcentrepenryn.org/womenofcornwall Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Women of Cornwall is run by Art Centre Penryn in collaboration with ceramic artist Katie Bunnell. The women to feature on the 50 plates come from an inspirational
group of 234 women, nominated by the public and featured in an exhibition earlier this year at Art Centre Penryn and Kresen Kernow.

An advisory panel, including representatives from Hypatia Trust, Kresen Kernow, Black Voices Cornwall and Access Cornwall, worked with Art Centre Penryn on the difficult task of selecting the women to be featured.

Megan Beck, Director of Art Centre Penryn says: “This isn’t a ‘top 50’ but simply a snapshot in time. We could have selected so many of the 234 women and we’re grateful to everyone who made a suggestion and took the time to contribute to the project. The stories are as inspirational as they are moving, and it was really difficult to select the 50.”

Katie Bunnell, the ceramic artist leading the Women of Cornwall project says:
“Selecting 50 women from the 234 has been an incredibly challenging task. The different perspectives of the advisory group were immensely helpful, enabling us to create what we hope is a broad and inspirational group.”

Dawn French, a great champion of all things Cornish, Chancellor of Falmouth University, Patron of Morrab Library, Penzance, and one of the selected women says:
“Wowee, I’m as chuffed as a chough to be included alongside such tip top women. What bounty Cornwall offers!”

Dr Virginia Button, Chair of The Poly, Falmouth says: “We're thrilled that Anna Maria and Caroline Fox have been included in this brilliantly conceived project. As the teenage originators of The Poly, we believe their story is truly inspirational for young women and young people. The nominations overall have been phenomenal, revealing the depth and breadth of the contribution women have made, and continue
to make, to our lives here, which makes us especially proud that our founders will be part of this important representation of some of Cornwall's extraordinary women.”

Art Centre Penryn is now actively raising the funding to commission a group of artists to create the plates. As Katie Bunnell explains “We’ll be working with a mix of fine and ceramic artists and anticipate a variety of creative approaches. We’re really excited to see how the artists will respond to these women and develop imagery that represents them and their work.”

Subject to securing the funding, the plates will be made in 2026 when they will tour venues across Cornwall before finding their permanent home at Art Centre Penryn. Updates on the Women of Cornwall project can be found on the @womenofcornwall Instagram account and by joining the Art Centre Penryn newsletter.

Women of Cornwall has been funded to date by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.