Her Court is a new collaborative exhibition between Young Masters and Wimbledon Museum.
Drawing on the museum’s local history collections and archives, the exhibition explores the little-known relationship between Wimbledon and the women’s suffrage movement. The exhibition explores themes of courage, resistance, erasure, public voice, women’s lives, hidden stories, symbolism and colour, place, power and change.
The project engages with the suffrage palette of purple, white and green, the history of Wimbledon, and wider narratives surrounding women’s rights and representation. The exhibition will bring together contemporary artistic responses across disciplines, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, textiles, performance, film and digital practice.
Selected artists will have the opportunity to engage with the archives of Wimbledon Museum, creating work that responds to the exhibition’s curatorial themes and historical artefacts connected to the fight for women
The exhibition will place contemporary artworks in dialogue with archival materials and local social history within Wimbledon Museum’s historic setting. Her Court considers how histories of protest, visibility and women’s political voice continue to resonate within contemporary culture today.
The following artists have artworks featured in the exhibition:
Alastair Gordon, Carolyn Tripp, Christophe Donot, Cristina Schek, Elizabeth O’Farrelly, Jo Holdsworth, Laura Dzelzytė, Lesley Boerio, Loraine Rutt, Louise Brooke, Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye, Robert Hodge, Sarah McAlister and Stephanie Jaffe.
Exhibition Programme
Alongside the exhibition, Young Masters and Wimbledon Museum will present a programme of talks, performances and educational events.
Alongside the exhibition is a programme of talks and educational events in the Lingfield Room next door to the museum, which must be reserved in advance.
Private View: Thursday 2 July 2026, 7-9pm | RSVP here
Artists’ Talk: Friday 3 July | 1.30-4.00pm Advance Booking Essential | RSVP here
An artists’ talk exploring the ideas, research and creative responses behind Her Court. Liz Hoggard and Yasmin Jones Henry will be in conversation with exhibiting artists Alastair Gordon, Jo Holdsworth, Laura Dzelzytė, Sarah McAlister and Stephanie Jaffe, discussing their work in relation to Wimbledon’s suffrage history, women’s voices, memory and contemporary artistic practice.
Time & Leisure ‘In Conversation’ with Helen Pankhurst CBE & Carmela Corbett
Tuesday 7 July 2026 | 5.00-7.00pm
Tickets £17.50 plus booking fee |Advance booking essential | RSVP here
A Time and Leisure ‘In Conversation’ event with Helen Pankhurst CBE, great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and Convenor of Centenary Action, and Carmela Corbett, actress, writer, producer and Women’s Aid Community Ambassador, moderated by Lucy Kane, owner and co-founder, Time & Leisure Magazine.
Finissage Tea: Saturday 11 July | 3.00-6.00pm
Advance Booking Essential | RSVP here
Join us for tea as we celebrate the closing weekend of the exhibition.
The afternoon will include a special performance by Yasmine Holness-Dove. Performance Review combines movement, chanting and spoken word, drawing on Medusa and the language of tennis to explore power, oppression and the dynamics between women.
The event will also feature Cynthia Valianti Corbett in conversation with artists Carolyn Tripp, Elizabeth O’Farrelly and Loraine Rutt.
Please note: all events take place at the Lingfield Room at Wimbledon Museum, 22 Ridgway, corner of Lingfield Road, SW19 4QN. Open daily, 11am-5pm.
Curatorial Research & Historical Context
The research behind Her Court focuses on the visual and symbolic relationship between Wimbledon, women’s suffrage and early twentieth-century political identity.
At the centre of this history is Rose Lamartine Yates, a leading suffrage campaigner and founder of the Wimbledon Women’s Social & Political Union (WWSPU). Deeply influenced by the social ideals of William Morris, Yates became a key organiser within militant suffrage activism. In 1909, she was imprisoned for her activism and later awarded the Holloway Brooch by the WWSPU. This brooch is now held in the Wimbledon Museum collection.
The exhibition also explores the symbolic overlap between the visual language of Wimbledon tennis and the suffrage movement. While Wimbledon itself was not a suffrage institution, its associations with discipline, visibility, respectability and dress codes intersect with the suffragettes’ strategic use of colour and public image.
Today, the suffrage colours of purple, white and green continue to resonate, forming visual bridges between political history, sport, fashion and contemporary identity.
About Young Masters
The Young Masters Art Prize is a curatorial platform that celebrates and supports emerging artists from across the world who are inspired by the art of the past. Young Masters was founded by gallerist Cynthia Valianti Corbett in 2009 as a not-for-profit juried Art Prize, inspired by her love of Art History and the Old Masters. The success of the Prize has grown with six incredible editions and has spotted the talents of over 400 artists who are part of its alumni network. Now, in 2026, its revitalised mission is to support emerging artists from across the world, bringing their work to a wider audience through a curated programme of pop-up exhibitions and fairs as well as maintaining a vibrant online presence that showcases its wide network of talented artists.
