This Sunday, the V&A, alongside the BBC, will host Open Doors: Vote 100 at London’s Here East. The free event will include a day of celebrations marking the centenary anniversary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act – which gave some women the right to vote in the UK.

Alongside free music, performance, workshops, debates, poetry, and film screenings, will be Dazed contributor and filmmaker Jade Jackman’s Continuing Conversations. The short film features amputee dance-artist Kat Hawkins, Girls in Film founder Nikola Vasakova, Dazed Arts & Culture editor Ashleigh Kane, and artist and She-Zine founder Diana Chire, and aims to open up dialogues about women’s accessibility and representation within the art world.

Each person brings in their own experience, their own authenticity, and what they feel needs to be talked about in the creative industry. It’s not only female inclusion but racial inclusion, non-binary inclusion, and people who have different abilities – promoting voices which aren’t heard nearly enough. The film opens the conversation that in spite of 100 years of women working towards gaining their rights to create, there is still so much to be done to make the creative industry truly accessible.

“The event is titled Open Doors to allude to creativity being accessible for all. The V&A wanted films that showed the present, discussed the past and looked forward to what we need to do for the future,” explains Jackman.

“The film is a celebration of the women who I see not only doing the work but women who also acknowledge that to make the creative industries truly accessible, there is more we need to consider other than gender.”

A lack of progress has been highlighted by female artists, such as the iconic Guerrilla Girls 1989 artwork, “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?” which called out the staggering imbalance of male to female artists being represented. But Jackman, through Open Doors, wants to pivot the conversation away from the negative aspects of the movement and focus on the good things that women have done to keep progressing within the creative realms.

“I wanted to convey that it is all a process and that we should all be here to learn, listen, and continue conversations,” says Jackman. “I make mistakes all the time and am far from perfect so I wanted to make something accessible and compelling to encourage others to also think out of themselves. Nobody is born with all the knowledge, everyone makes mistakes and can improve… you just have to open yourself to that.”

Watch Jackman’s film in full here

Open Doors: Vote 100 runs this Sunday 22 July at Here East – a space which aims to be inclusive, accessible, and supportive of the creative community – from 12-6pm. The day is free and the full programme can be found here