We are thrilled to announce that the Wellcome Trust has awarded SHaME a “Research Enrichment – Public Engagement” award to run a series of Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual Violence in collaboration with The WOW Foundation.
Shameless! festivals are exciting cross-arts events combining academic research, activism and art to confront sexual violence. The project, which will run for three years starting in 2021, will take place in the UK and Brazil. These festivals will bring together diverse communities of survivors and the expertise of researchers, medical, psychiatric and legal professionals, artists and activists in a transformative programme of talks, performances, workshops, ‘how to’ clinics, wellness spaces, and a schools’ programme.
We are particularly thrilled to be collaborating with The WOW Foundation. WOW festivals have successfully mobilised a global feminist movement reaching over two million people across sixty-five festivals in seventeen countries. Our respective knowledges and expertise will develop a strong complementary programme: uniting SHaME’s interdisciplinary research with WOW’s provocative and celebratory programming, Shameless! will create real impact in the lives of sexual violence survivors.
We will be working with national, international and grassroots organisations and charities, and commission local artists and wellness practitioners to facilitate safe spaces for dialogue and healing. Offering a unique environment for children, families, young people, women, gender- and trans-diverse people, the festivals will provide safeguarding measures to protect members from vulnerable and marginalised communities (race, class, abilities, sexualities and genders).
Shameless! aims to revolutionise conversations around sexual violence between survivors and professionals; burst open the constructed and inherited ideas of shame; and create an emboldening attitudinal shift from stigma to agency. We aim to confront and dismantle the shame surrounding sexual violence, to create a collective, transformative shift within society and tangible impact for survivors, who will leave the festival with essential tools and knowledge to support their recovery.
Shameless!’s purpose is to change societal attitudes towards sexual violence.
We hope you share our vision and will join in these festivals of activism against all forms of sexual abuse.