As one of the key aims of International Women’s Day is to celebrate the work of women creatives and elevate visibility, Enter Gallery has partnered with The Girls Network to provide young girls with an artist as a mentor. 

Before the temporary closure of our Brighton gallery due to Covid 19 last year,  we celebrated International Women’s Day 2020 with our fantastic artists, Ruth Mulvie, Rebecca Strickson and JanaNicole with a panel talk hosted by Alice Reeves and featuring Zazie from The Girls Network.

Our artists discussed how they started out in the art industry, the barriers they faced and hope to inspire a future generation of creative women with The Girls Network.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast at Art Related Noise

The Girls Network believe that no girl's future should be limited by her background, gender or parental income. Their mission is to empower girls from the least advantaged communities by connecting them with a mentor and a network of professional women as role models.

“For me it’s about visibility. If you can’t see something, it’s going to be a lot harder to be it. So you need to see people doing the thing that you want to do.” Rebecca Strickson

One thing that came out of the conversation was self-doubt can be the biggest barrier to creating and having confidence in your creations.

All our artists expressed the importance of mentors in encouraging them to pursue their career in art. This mentoring scheme will help them give back by inspiring girls who have expressed an interest in a career in the arts. A human connection who can encourage them that they can make it too.

“I had a couple of women in my life who were amazing, and to be able to go to someone who wasn’t your mother who treated you as an adult and listened to you and didn’t laugh at you… They listened and they were my friends. So that made me feel really good about myself and gave me confidence’ says JanaNicole

Mentoring can be an equally rewarding process for the mentor says Ruth Mulvie, “I guess that process of mentoring is probably quite a reflective one that both parties get something out of it. It’s a friendship and its supporting and encouraging and helping someone to grow.”

The Girls Network continue to provide much-needed support to young girls throughout lockdown by running mentoring services online.

98% of girls mentored during the pandemic said their mentor helped them feel more positive about their future. 81% said mentoring helped them focus more on virtual school work, and teachers said the programme was a “lifeline” for their worst-off pupils.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor click here.

We will be following our artists journeys as mentors and learning more about their mentees and their aspirations in the near future. Artists who will be involved are Sara Pope, Sarah Arnett, Rebecca Strickson, JanaNicole, Ruth Mulvie and Lauren Baker

Did you enjoy the panel talk at the gallery? Let us know on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.