Everything I Know, I Felt
About Girl Gang
Girl Gang Manchester is a collective of artists, activists, academics and party instigators who create electrically live, inclusive collaborative experiences.
We connect people over debates, discussions and dance floors, creating immersive screenings, experiential exhibitions, creative club nights, theatre, online projects, workshops, book clubs, support groups and zines since 2016!
Girl Gang CV
We’ve been busy! Here’s everything we’ve ever done, in chronological order
Creativity, Community, Collaboration & Connection: Our Values
We believe that everyone is an artist, popular culture can be profound and politics and feminism are for everybody. Our projects and spaces celebrate art and activism as powerful tools to connect, reflect and recharge; helping us to understand ourselves, each other and the world around us. We believe people are empowered to step outside their usual comfort zones and surpass their own expectations when they’re having a lovely time and we’re proud that our spaces have been recognised as inclusive, fun and meaningful; encouraging people to be best selves, take up space, make new friends and collaborators and co-create and learn with others.
Foregrounding the talents, interests, ideas, issues and friendships of women and marginalized genders, our projects are an opportunity for both our artists and audiences to connect on an equal level to shine, skillshare and try new things.
It’s A Lot
What makes us us?
Girl Gang are known for conceptualising large scale collaborative events, immersive environments and inclusive atmospheres. Our work is playful, visual, responsive and grounded in fun, generally working with a cross art form, participatory approach – to push artists and audiences to widen their perspective of what a particular art event or form could be.
As a collective we are socially and politically engaged, creating spaces for our community and ourselves to co-learn, raise funds and resources for important causes. We often use popular culture as an entry point to make complex issues accessible to new audiences, combining a range of reference points and influences to create something new and exciting. Our unique brand of gentle, glittery activism where radical ideas are presented in an accessible setting allows us to attract audiences beyond those already actively engaging in feminist art theory or social activism.
Girl Gang Newsletter
Our lovely newsletter drops every other week (ish) and contains information about all our upcoming events, where to buy tickets from, plus recommendations of what we’ve been watching and listening to, places we’ve visited and other events and occasions in the local area that have caught our eye and want to put under your nose! Sign up to receive some regular Girl Gang news into your inbox here.
The Story So Far ...
Founded in January 2016 by Artistic Director and Executive Producer Megan Marie Griffith, the collective have 8 years and 200+ events experience in creating cross art form, participatory, socially and politically engaged work. Co-lead by Company Manager Ellie Ragdale, (who founded the original Girl Gang Sheffield in 2015 and has worked with Girl Gang Manchester as a core producer from the outset), the pair bring an additional combined 24 years experience creating immersive community cinema events (Handmade Cinema), experiential theatre productions and creative community development (Pull Your Finger Out Productions) from their prior and ongoing freelance careers.
Galentine’s Day Disco
Who Are We?
Core Team
The Girl Gang Manchester team is ever evolving and is representative of Manchester’s vibrant and diverse creative scene- a fluid collective of artists, activists, academics, producers, doers and dreamers who collaborate to make the magic happen! We have a core team of regular volunteers who meet weekly and help cover the crucial roles to keep the engine turning, produce our commissions, facilitate and make our regular events happen. Participation and roles are assessed on a yearly basis. Our core team includes visual artists, dancers, theatre-makers, poets, comedians, photographers, influencers, designers and more!
A Fluid Collective, Constantly Collaborating:
We have collaborated with hundreds of artists, activists and academics over the years covering a huge range of disciplines and areas of expertise. We love to build relationships and will often take the opportunity to work with people again who we think are boss! Equally, we are always keen to platform as many new (to us, or in their career!) talents as possible and actively create space to do so through open calls and submissions and keeping our ears and eyes open to Manchester’s wealth of talent.
Associate Artists:
We’re proud to have a small cohort of associated artists whose work we proudly champion and are our ‘go to gals’ for our creative commissions, and who also bring us their ideas to help realise and champion the work we do beyond our collaborations. Check out our associate artists and previous projects here to see an overview of the sort of people, artforms, interests and themes we’ve worked with to date.
Girl Gang Blog
Our blog is a space to reflect on the month behind and get excited for the month ahead in Girl Gang towers! We also welcome think pieces, reviews and long form personal essays on thoughts and feelings from our team, community and associate artists.
Previous Partners
Over the years we’ve had the pleasure of working with a plethora of organisations, brands and venues. Check out what our community, commissioners, partners and the press have said about some of our events.
