Saatchi's Celebrate Female Artists

VivaWomen!, a women’s network, run by women for women, across all Publicis Groupe UK agencies, has help to organise an art exhibition featuring female artists and creatives who, they say, "don’t play by the rules and refuse to be good girls. Because good is just not good enough".

There’s a Good Girl [TAGG] will celebrate art created by women within the creative industries, and offer a chance to view unique work by some of the most innovative female artists working in London today. It will provide a platform for each artist to make a personal artistic statement, free from commercial diktats.

The exhibition, featuring artists including Alison Carmichael, Alison Jackson, Hattie Stewart, Malika Favre and Sara Pope, will be revealed at an invitation-only private view in Saatchi & Saatchi’s Charlotte Street offices on November 27, before moving to the Assembly Rooms in Soho, where the work will be on display to the public until the 19th December.

The team at Saatchi's behind TAGG, pictured top [clockwise from bottom right] is Shelley Dobson (gloabl head of beauty), Jo Wallace (creative director), Layla Boyd (project manager), Lisa Robbins (business leader), Lee Sharrock (director of global creative PR), Suzie Quill (art director) and Camilla McLean (copywriter) and below, members of the team talk more about TAGG, how it came about and why it's needed.

Tell us a little bit about There’s a Good Girl, what it is and how it came about?

Jo Wallace: Several months ago I went along to a VivaWomen! breakfast meeting. During that breakfast meeting they invited me to give a talk, sharing my story and experiences as a female creative director. I readily agreed, but then gave it some more thought. I was sure there must be a bigger and better way to showcase female creativity, with a wider reaching cultural relevance.

We [the agency] regularly brief photographers, directors, illustrators etc. and I thought it would be fantastic to invite women in these roles, whose commercial work we all know and love, to exhibit personal work.

I discussed this idea with several colleagues and there was such passion for the idea that it quickly went from strength to strength with spectacular results. There’s a Good Girl is the result of a combination of skills and passion from the whole, amazing TAGG team, consisting of myself, Shelley Dobson, Suzie Quill, Camilla McLean, Layla Boyd, Lee Sharrock and Lisa Robbins.

How did you get the various artists involved in the project?

Suzie Quill/Camilla McLean: It was very much about finding the right artists for our theme. To ensure we had the best pool of talent to choose from Jo put together a crack team! Shelley, Suzie, Camilla, Layla and Lee pooled contacts - from agents, artists, galleries, to random advertising folk - giving us a fantastic spectrum of established and emerging women artists, all hugely successful in their chosen area of art.

Suzie had previously been involved in organising several exhibitions (Higher Pitch and Art Sells in 2010-2012) and as these exhibitions followed a similar format, Suzie had a tonne of contacts in her little black book.

Lee Sharrock’s experience in organising exhibitions and events for Saatchi & Saatchi globally meant she too was able to bring on board a number of influential artists, and Layla’s work as an illustrator’s agent in a previous life meant that she was able to hook us up with some incredible talent like Alison Carmichael and Malika Favre.

As we developed the theme we debated and then selected the artists we felt were right, then each of the artists was sent a personalised pack inviting them to be part of the show. Happily, the response from the artists was phenomenal and we ended up with a starry mix of artists spanning film, sculpture, drawing, photography, illustration, installation and mixed media.

Do you think that women are under-represented in the advertising industry and, if so, why do you think that is?

Jo Wallace: Historically women have been under-represented in many facets of advertising, particularly the creative department. We’ve all seen Mad Men and cringed. Things are changing but it’s still far from the norm to have a female creative director, or a female director for example. But the talent is there and with There’s a Good Girl we’re showcasing and celebrating that.

It’s not about tokenism, it’s about talent, plain and simple. There are very talented creative men, and there are very talented creative women, it’s just that previously we’ve tended to see and hear more about the male talent.

The good news is that we’re starting to see more and more female creative teams both in agencies and at showcases such as Cream. There are more female creatives, creative directors and directors than ever before. This means there are more female role models and mentors for future talent, male and female.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a 1980 book by Marianne Grabrucker; what is it about that book which inspired this project?

Camilla McLean: We wanted a kick-ass theme for the exhibition that would embody the philosophy of VivaWomen! and would also be thought-provoking for the artists. And that’s when we came across Marianne Grubrucker’s book in a Guardian piece about gender stereotyping.

The book provided us with the perfect guiding principles. And in the manner of Marianne Grubrucker encouraging her daughter to reach for the stars, we wanted the exhibition to inspire women, creative or otherwise, to achieve their own cosmic-level of awesomeness. We also loved the playfulness of the title, which coupled with our anarchic-looking poster (doodlebombed by the cheeky Hattie Stewart) has provoked all sorts of brilliant responses.

What can people expect to take away from the exhibition after they’ve seen it?

Camilla McLean: It’s certain to cause some skin-tingling, knee-trembling reaction. Well that’s how we feel anyway! There’s certainly some pretty provocative and inspiring work on show and hopefully people will take a little bit of that spirit away with them but if not we’ve got some Beluga vodka in our goodie bags (along with a whole load of other goodies from our sponsors!).

And if people are feeling flush they can literally take away one of the pieces. Most are for sale with all proceeds are going to a great cause – Plan UK. We’ll also be selling limited edition prints of the poster signed by Hattie Stewart (£100) and There’s a Good Girl knickers (£15).