Competition – Make Space For Women

TO ACCESS THE ENTRY FORM CLICK HERE

Community Plan for Holloway are launching the Make Space for Women competition, for organizations, schools and individuals, with £100 prizes and an exhibition. Deadline 18th April 2021. Please submit your artwork, photography, video, personal story or poem telling us more about women and girls’ needs. This will help us campaign for enough space in the Women’s Building on the Holloway Prison redevelopment. We welcome personal stories, reflections, visions, hopes and dreams, documentary or more abstract representations. Let your imagination run free!

2021 Make Space for Women Competition

A – Introduction

B – Entry rules

C – Timeline

D – Prizes

E – Jury & Judging process


Enter the Community Plan for Holloway MAKE SPACE FOR WOMEN Competition and win £100 for yourself, your school or your organisation.

A. Introduction

Enter Community Plan for Holloway’s (CP4H) Make Space for Women competition and win £100 for your school, organisation or yourself! We invite you to submit your story, a poem or artwork telling us why you think women need space in a Women’s Building on the Holloway Prison redevelopment.

Holloway Prison was the first women’s prison in the UK, but is now closed and being developed by Peabody Housing Association. As well as housing, there will be a Women’s Building on the site as a positive legacy for the prison and to provide much-needed services for all women. This was fought for by campaigners and supported by Islington Council. But currently not enough space is being offered to give women and the community what they need. So, we’d like your ideas about what women need in the Women’s Building to make a real difference to their lives.


This competition is free to enter and open to pupils and schools in the London boroughs of Islington and Camden and to organisations and individuals across the UK and internationally. 

We are looking for creative and community-aware entries from people of any gender, to express what you feel a Women’s Building on the Holloway Prison redevelopment can offer women and the community now and in the future. We welcome personal stories, reflections, visions, hopes and dreams, documentary or more abstract representations.

Winners and all shortlisted entries will be exhibited through an online exhibition. 

There are seven prizes of £100 each across five categories (minimum of one prize per category).

Here is the  MS4W video  to help explain the competition.

B. Entry Rules

1. Individual or team entries are allowed

2. Entries are open to:

  • Schools: pupils or pupil-teams from schools in the London boroughs of Islington and Camden, from pupils up to age 16 years.
  • Young people: aged 17-25, individuals or teams: national and international
  • Organisations: individuals or teams from national and international
  • Independent/adult: individuals or teams: national and international

3. Each person can submit a maximum of one entry (either as an individual or a team).

4. Your entry can be one of the following

  • A poem
  • Your story (maximum 600 words)
  • A painting or illustration
  • A video 
  • A photograph 
  • A collage

5. Your entry will be submitted into one of the following categories: 

  • Primary school
  • Secondary school (up to 16 years)
  • Young People: 17-25 years old 
  • Organisations 
  • Independent/adult 

6. All entries must have been produced between January 2020 and the competition deadline 18th April 2021. Once submitted your entry cannot be amended.

7. By entering this competition you guarantee that your entry is authored only in the name of the entrants submitting them.

8. By entering this you grant permission for CP4H to use the entry for publicity and media purposes.

9. You grant permission for CP4H to use a name attached to your entry (this does not have to be your real name, you may use a pseudonym if the material is sensitive)

10. Entries may be submitted in virtual form (up to 10 megabytes); videos via a link; delivered/posted copies . We will endeavour to keep hard copies stored safely and securely but you deliver and leave them with us at your own risk. Therefore we advise you not to send originals of work during the first phase (photocopies or photos are enough) we will contact you if you have been shortlisted and ask for higher resolution work if available

C. Timeline

Submit Entry: 1st February 2021  – 18th April 2021 (midnight) 

Entries Judged: 19th April 2021 – 9th May 2021

Winners announced: week beginning 10th May

Exhibition to follow this (online and/or venue to be announced in due course).

D. Prizes

5 categories with 7 prizes of £100 each

1 X primary school 

1 X secondary school (up to 16 years)

1 X 17-25 years old 

1 X organisations 

1 X independent/adult

E. Jury and judging process

There will be up to seven community judges. The criteria for judging entries is a combination of creativity, written or visual skills and relevance to the topic. 

  • The entries will be judged in several rounds over the period from 19th April to 9th May 2021. 
  • All shortlisted entries will be exhibited.
  • Entrants’ names will be removed to facilitate fairness.
  • If jurors recognise any entries/entrants, they will not vote.
  • Jurors cannot enter their own work into the competition.
  • The Jury is assisted by Community Plan for Holloway who are responsible for all procedural matters and ensuring that the rules and procedures are fairly and properly applied.  
  • The judges include:
  1. Elaine Maffrett, Manager of Hilldrop Community Centre, N7
  2. Safi El Dardiry, local artist and campaigner, 19 years. Foundation Diploma in Art and Design,  Ravensbourne University London. 
  3. Sheri Lawal , Director of Choices N19, a not-for-profit organisation working with groups of people in the community https://www.choiceslondoncic.com/our-story  
  4. Niki Gibbs. Artist. https://www.bluesunflower.com/artists/index  Community Plan for Holloway director
  5. Caitlin Davies, author of Bad Girls, a history of Holloway Prison. https://www.caitlindavies.co.uk/bad/
  6. Jessica Scott. Local artist and Islington Homes for All campaigner. working primarily in textiles and ceramics to explore feminism, diy culture, punk and the politics of shared experiences https://jessica-scott.com/about/ 
  7. Arkan Aqiil. 17yrs, A-Level student, at St Aloysius RC College taking Chemistry Physics and Maths.

TO ACCESS THE ENTRY FORM CLICK HERE