Light Collective Launch Celebratory Project Women In Lighting

Light Collective are pleased to announce their new project called Women in Lighting. Aiming to be launch on International Women’s day in 2019, it is a celebratory project that will set out to create an inspirational digital platform for women working in the architectural lighting industry to promote their passion and achievements, narrate their career path and goals, celebrate their work and elevate their profile in the lighting community. It will look to gather statistics and answer the call to action issued by Interior Designer, Ilse Crawford.

“When we talk about women in design, we should not turn it into a minority issue. We need to honour our heroines because unless they are visible, we will not encourage the next generation of female designers.” Ilse Crawford

Focusing in on the lighting profession it will ask questions like how can we increase the profile of successful women working in lighting to help encourage the next generation? How can those who are established best support them?

Women in Lighting will have a website that hosts and database of interviews with women from around the world. Starting with lighting designers, the scope will expand to include women in all aspects of lighting, from education, journalism, manufacturing, art and research.

The theme for International Women’s Day 2019 is Balance for Better,  a call-to-action for driving gender balance across the world. This is completely in line with one of the outcomes of Women In Lighting. We have been looking at the figure of female participation in conferences, committees, juries and panels and it is evident that women are under represented. Our main aim is that as there are approximately 50% of female lighting designers, they get 50% visibility.

The project launch is being supported by formalighting, a family owned lighting manufacturer with over 50 years and 2 generations dedicated to architectural lighting. Light Collective approached formalighting with this project as they are a company with a strong inspirational women in a lead role – Sharon Maghnagi.  Sharon is personally involved in the project, invested in the outcome and she said

“We were touched and delighted to be offered this opportunity by Light Collective to support an initiative that could inspire or welcome a new generation into lighting. Ultimately, it always comes down to the work – promoting the work. That’s what we find truly inspiring and I think any woman or man in the lighting community would appreciate a new professional network that welcomes a global exchange of passion and creativity.“

The project has already gathered support from individual female designers in almost 50 different countries. These “ambassadors” are a point of contact in each location for anyone seeking to find out more about the project. The site will launch with over 30 interviews recorded by Light Collective and will then open for other women to upload their own interviews. Light Collective are also being actively supported by social media guru and upcoming lighting designer, Katia Kolovea of Archifos.

Project co-founder, Sharon Stammers from Light Collective said,

“Having been involved in lighting design from the very beginning, women have had a greater role in shaping the lighting design profession than in architecture and engineering. The lighting design profession is a supportive industry for women and the many routes into the profession offer opportunities from a diverse set of backgrounds. It is an industry that is good at sharing information amongst its community and can therefore offer support to other women who may need it. We want to create role models, redress the balance and encourage women to choose to work in lighting or other related jobs”.

Women in Lighting is not about gender inequality but about inclusivity and how this is beneficial to the profession as a whole.

If you want to get involved please contact the team at hello@womeninlighting.com