Art enabling conversations about Menopause - The 'Empowering Women through positive change' art collection 2023

Empowering Women through Positive Change: How Art Can Spark Conversations about Menopause

International Women's Day is a time to celebrate women and their achievements, but it's also an opportunity to raise awareness about important issues affecting women's lives. This year, Changextra, a company passionate about "enabling conversations about the menopause," took a new approach to engagement using art. The result was a thought-provoking and inspiring art collective called "Empowering Women through Positive Change."

Changextra engaged a Fine Art student intern, Sarah Farnsworth, funded by the DRIVEN programme at Derby Uni, to design the art collective. Sarah, a woman in peri-menopause herself, created four totally different but equally inspiring pieces of art that were displayed at events across the Midlands in March, as well as online. Changextra invited people to tell them how the art made them feel, and they were thrilled by how many people felt engaged with the art and how it displayed empowered women.

Here are the 4 pieces of art designed:

Do any of the pieces of art speak to you more than the others? Does any say 'empowered women' more than the others? The art collective displays included a competition to choose a favourite, and to name the four pieces of art, and winners will be announced in April. This interactive and inclusive approach to engaging with menopause issues through art was a great success, and ChangeXtra is now considering how to further use art in their training and product development.

On International Women's Day itself, ChangeXtra was privileged to be invited to a big celebration of women's groups at the Nottingham Council House. There, they displayed the art and engaged in conversations about the menopause. This gave Claire, ChangeXtra's CEO, and Sarah, the artist, the opportunity to engage with a wide range of users, as well as others working in the space for female empowerment. Claire also had the chance to contribute to local policy development workshops on the needs of women locally, representing the voice of women in peri-menopause.

The use of art to stimulate important conversations about female health and empowerment was an overwhelming success. Changextra did not anticipate how much people would engage with the meshing of art and science, but the results were inspiring. The success of this project demonstrates that art can be an effective tool for sparking conversations and raising awareness about important health issues affecting women.

ChangeXtra's use of art in their engagement and awareness-raising efforts about menopause is an exciting development that will surely inspire other others to think creatively about how to engage with important health issues. Stay tuned to Changextra's social media channels and blog to find out more about their exciting developments in this area.

In conclusion, the Empowering Women through Positive Change art collective shows how art can be a powerful tool for raising awareness and engaging with important health issues affecting women. ChangeXtra's approach is an inspiring example of how organisations can think outside the box to create meaningful and impactful engagement initiatives.

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