This is Menopause, a powerful exhibition where women share portraits, personal stories and a striking quilt calling for better menopause experiences for all, is opening at Lighthouse, Poole.
Created in collaboration with 55 women, the exhibition, which takes place from Tuesday 10 March until Saturday 11 April, places lived experience at the heart of the conversation around menopause care – a moving exploration of creativity, connection and collective voice.
The project was organised by Pauline Ferrick-Squibb, a Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Commercial Photography and MA Photography courses at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).
Pauline comments, “The quilt has been produced through participatory research after receiving funding from Research England and AUB.
“The research aimed to determine whether engaging in the creative process of quilt making would empower women to express their experiences with greater confidence and advocate for changes to enhance their own and others journeys through the menopause.”
Through shared storytelling, collaborative portraiture and hands-on workshops, participants came together to create a quilt made up of 78 individual squares, each reflecting the realities of menopause in ways that are honest, powerful and deeply personal. The result demonstrates how creativity can open up conversation, build confidence and inspire meaningful change.
A variety of creative processes and techniques were used, including printmaking using a letter press to make statements, paintings and drawings digitally printed onto the squares, and embroidery.
The research data is evidenced in the quilt itself, as well as in a short video that captures the voices of the women talking during the workshops, which was shown at the launch and will be available at future exhibitions.
The quilt-making workshops were hosted by AUB’s Innovation Studio and saw women collaborate over the course of the project sharing their own menopause journeys with the group over a series of eight workshops.
“Despite an increase in awareness in the media, women experiencing the menopause are still not getting the support and treatment they need,” Pauline explains. “I know this first-hand having been prescribed anti-depressants aged 47 and finding that the depression did not leave me until I was prescribed HRT five years later.
“With my newfound motivation and energy, I acquired a small grant from AUB to photograph a diverse range of 20 perimenopausal and menopausal women who all generously shared their experiences with me. I was then fortunate to obtain funding from Research England to begin some participatory research with women who were experiencing or had experienced menopause.
“I wanted to find out if the creative process of producing a quilt in collaboration with others would enable them to collectively and individually articulate their experiences, foster a sense of community, and enable them to have greater agency in advocating strategies to improve their experience of the menopause.
“Everyone who has worked on this quilt hopes that its creation helps open up these much-needed conversations on the menopause and our generation can be proud to transition the menopause from a taboo and unknown topic into the everyday, helping give women the support and help they need.”
The This is Menopause exhibition is coming to Lighthouse, Poole after a five-month showing in the new Art Space Gallery at The BEACH Building (Births, Emergency And Critical Care, Children's Health) at Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
This is Menopause was the hospital gallery's inaugural exhibition, which is now being followed by a project from AUB MA Photography alumnus David Bird, with a project he produced on the MA – Cold Water Swimming.
This is Menopause will be at Lighthouse, Poole from Tuesday 10 March until Saturday 11 April. For more information, visit the venue's website.
