A banner celebrating freedom, hope and championing women’s rights has taken pride of place at Tower Hamlets Centre for Mental Health.

Service users helped create the vibrant banner in partnership with visual artist Claudette Johnson. It was made six years ago to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and has now returned to be displayed.

In 2018, service users from the Tower Hamlets Centre for Mental Health joined a workshop with local resident and visual artist Claudette Johnson MBE RA to create a banner to mark the occasion. This event was held to share ideas and discuss values that were important to service users, including fairness, self-worth, freedom and hope.

The resulting banner featured a portrait of Olive Morris, a leading black British feminist and community leader from the 1970s. 

This was later carried by Trust staff at a mass procession, creating a living artwork on the streets of London. Details about the processions – which were also held in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh – can be found on art organisation Artichoke’s website.