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Let’s Talk about Sexual Violence Exhibition will feature at Quetzal Stories of Change Exhibition on Wednesday 9th February 2022.

Quetzal collaborated with Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence team from the University of Leicester for the launch of their website in November 2020 inviting volunteers and the public to participate in the campaign.  Quetzal community connectors recorded audios reflecting on some of the artworks and also interviewed Dr Kaitlynn Mendes. You can watch their outputs here

About Let’s Talk about Sexual Violence

The Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence exhibition is an interdisciplinary project aiming to challenge myths and misconceptions around rape. 

Funded by the Office for Students and the University of Leicester’s Standing Together initiative this project is the outcome of numerous academics and practitioners working and researching sexual violence in the East Midlands. The idea of a visual art project was raised at a HeForShe ideathon in February 2018 where students were asked: how can we tackle gender-based violence.  

While the ideathon played a significant role, the exhibition is a collaboration between academics, activists, artists, practitioners, students, survivors, university and sexual violence support services. The overall aim is to challenge insidious and entrenched myths and misconceptions regarding rape and sexual assault, with a collective voice. 

The project was considered from three angles: academic research, art and advocacy. Art is used to shine a light on important and complex research which may be difficult to access. The exhibition aims to be an advocacy project within itself by connecting this initiative to the wider global debate, as well as other projects specific to the issue of sexual violence. 

The artworks were selected or commissioned, based on the project’s intention to shift existing debates around sexual violence, away from victim-blaming or more sensationalised representations. Instead, the artworks are intended to evoke a sense of urgency and/or collective agency among viewers. 

In its first instalment, the exhibition was hosted across multiple sites on the University of Leicester campus in February 2019. The themes of each exhibit were reflected in the respective disciplines of the hosting sites, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of the project. These different spaces were used to feature separate and sometimes overlapping concepts which reflected the role of that department or school within the context of the pursuit of justice. In choosing this sites, numerous experiences were symbolically represented as survivors continue to move between the injustices of systemic power, towards peace and solidarity in a collaborative pursuit for justice. 

How can you support Quetzal Stories of Change Exhibition and the participating artists

You can purchase the artists’ artworks. Part of the proceeds will support will go to Quetzal enabling us to continue our FREE support to female survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

You can invite us to display the artworks in your venue. Contact us directly so we can give you more information about the tour of the exhibition

When booking for the event and confirming, you can choose to make a donation to support our work and female survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Book here and donate

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