Changemakers
Changemakers is a series of conversations with women across the cultural sector, highlighting how their work has shifted narratives, broken down barriers, and generated change across the arts.
Changemakers is inspired by the RA’s Angelica Kauffman exhibition and her role as a pioneering artist.
Kauffman was one of only two female painters among the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, the other artist being Mary Moser. Kauffman helped to shape the direction of European art, reinventing the genre of history painting by focusing largely on female protagonists from classical history and mythology.
Angelica Kauffman is at the RA until 30 June 2024.
Rachel Whiteread
19 June 2024
Rachel Whiteread will discuss her pioneering career and how her practice has continually pushed the boundaries of sculpture.
Rachel Whiteread is widely recognised for her casting of everyday settings, objects and surfaces, from hot water bottles and beds to entire houses. Transformed into ghostly replicas, her sculptures reveal hidden narratives to reflect on the purpose and memory that these objects once held.
Whiteread was the first woman to win the Turner prize in 1993 and to present a solo exhibition for the British Pavilion during the Venice Biennale in 1997. She was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who featured in the Sensation exhibition at the RA in 1997. She has since taken over the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, London’s Fourth Plinth, created the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna and placed a cast of a 1950s house at the United States Embassy in London, as well as holding major exhibitions and retrospectives across the world.
Zandra Rhodes
19 July 2024
In this conversation, Zandra Rhodes will talk about championing creativity and individuality over five decades of designing iconic fashion collections.
A pioneer of the British and international fashion scene since the late 1960s, Zandra Rhodes' dramatic designs and her own distinctive look have paved the way for fashion, challenging cultural conventions and expectations. Rhodes is an era-defining designer who has dressed international stars including Freddie Mercury, Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, and Princess Diana.
In 2003, she founded London’s Fashion and Textile Museum. In 2020, she formed the Zandra Rhodes Foundation, enabling her work to be used for the learning, creativity and imagination of current and future designers and researchers. In 2015 she was made a Dame in recognition of her contribution to fashion and textiles.
Elif Shafak
11 September 2024
In this conversation, British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak will talk about writing, empathy, humanity, activism and the importance of storytelling.
Elif Shafak has published 20 books, 13 of which are novels, addressing silenced voices and untold stories from Eastern and Western cultures, memory and amnesia, climate change and water scarcity, equality and human rights. The most widely read female author in Turkey, her work has been shortlisted for the Costa Award, British Book Awards, RSL Ondaatje Prize, Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Booker Prize.
An advocate for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of expression, Shafak was among the BBC's 100 most inspiring and influential women and the BBC’s selection of 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. Twice a TED global speaker, Politico listed her in 2017 as one of the twelve people who would make the world better. Shafak was awarded the Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize for her contribution to 'the renewal of the art of storytelling’.
Meera Syal
27 November 2024
Meera Syal will talk about creativity, comedy, breaking down barriers and amplifying unheard voices across her multi-faceted career.
Meera Syal CBE is an award-winning British actor, comedian and writer. She is widely known for co-writing and acting in the multi-award-winning comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at Number 42. Her many other film and TV credits include Yesterday, Paddington 2 and Broadchurch, alongside an extensive theatre career with leading roles at The National Theatre, The Old Vic and the Royal Court.