Atwood at Side

Opening event 2pm today, Saturday 16 January – on until Saturday 13 March 2010

‘People often ask how I could pursue such a “sad” subject for so long. Curiosity was the initial spur. Surprise, shock and bewilderment gradually took over. Rage propelled me along to the end. In the early 1980s I first requested access to prisons in France, but was refused. It was not until 1989 that a chance assignment got me inside. That first, very real, very harsh experience of prison life opened my eyes. I identified with the inmates I met. On many levels they were just like me. But what had happened to them was dramatically different. Of the eighteen women in that first jail, all but one seemed to be incarcerated because of a man – for something he’d done, or something they’d never have done on their own.’

Jane Evelyn Atwood

Side Gallery is part of the Amber Collective’s work and activities, at the very bottom of Dean Street on Newcastle’s Quayside. Walk down from the station via the Bridge Hotel and a warren of ancient half-hidden steps: Dog Leap Stair or Castle Steps. It’s open  Tuesday to Saturdays, 11am to 5pm, and it’s free.

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