We are so grateful for every single person who has contributed to Femspectives in the past, attended our events or engaged with us in other ways.
We started Femspectives in 2018 to create a platform for feminist storytelling in Glasgow and champion the creators of this work. We wanted to use film as a means of community building and provide opportunities for non-hierarchical conversations and learning experiences. Recent events have shown that we needed to take a step back and return to our starting point. We apologise for letting you down.
We’ve been taking some time away and paused activity to deeply think and reflect on the space we occupy as a small arts organisation and how we occupy it. We’ve been thinking about what we want Femspectives to be moving forward, our position and practice, how we want the festival to develop and who we want it to serve. This process is far from complete.
Through this reflection, we are formulating a framework that guides our decision-making process and impacts our curatorial approach, our partner organisations and event partners, and all future developments. We are also developing practical steps we can take as an organisation to be more actively anti-racist.
We want to be transparent and accountable throughout this process. Our first step was to re-write our Mission Statement and clearly state our objectives and commitments. We intend this to be a living document that can be amended, altered through feedback, experiences and conversations, and intended to hold us accountable. Some of the objectives we can address ourselves and commit to doing so. Others will require additional resources and support, which we are going to seek out from partners and funders.
We acknowledge that as an organisation and as individuals and white feminists we are participating in and benefiting from a system that privileges whiteness. This is unacceptable. There are no quick fixes or easy answers, but we are committed to an ongoing process of unlearning and undoing this.
Thank you for taking the time and energy to read this.
Lauren and Kathi