“What would it mean to move beyond symbolic gestures and practise real accessibility, support and care?”
WRITTEN BY AMY-ROSE EDLYN (CO-CURATOR OF THE F WORD AT FIREPIT ART GALLERY AND STUDIOS CIC, GREENWICH PENINSULA) IN COLLABORATION WITH ANNA STILES, ZOPHIEL WEBB AND VALENTINA BARANOVA (ARTISTS EXHIBITING IN THE F WORD). WITH THANKS TO TASNIM SIDDIQA AMIN, IMAGE BY ANNA STILES (A COMPLEX PELVIS)
By the time a space declares itself “inclusive”, many queer artists already know what that often means: a rainbow logo during Pride, an open call that isn’t truly open, a seat at a table never built with us in mind. The F Word – a transdisciplinary exhibition by women and non-binary creatives exploring femininity – emerges from that reality. As a queer AFAB non-binary curator, the question I keep returning to is not whether art spaces want us visible, but whether they are willing to be accountable. What would it mean to move beyond symbolic gestures and practise real accessibility, support and care?
The F Word exists because those values are rarely centred in mainstream art structures. Our practices are shaped by lived experience and often sit at odds with commercial pressures that reward palatability and speed. Within this exhibition, honesty is a method: connection over polish, substance over convention. When speaking to the exhibiting artists, themes of authenticity, accountability and community surfaced again and again.
For artist Anna Stiles, care begins with telling the truth about bodies that refuse narrow expectations. Her project A Complex Pelvis turns the private experience of chronic illness into a quiet challenge to gendered ideas of what a “real woman” should be. Vulnerable by nature, her work is driven by a desire to “seek connection through honesty”, offering visibility and the reassurance that others are not alone.
This belief – that art can turn private struggle into collective recognition – runs throughout the exhibition. Zophiel Webb threads personal narratives through their work, shaped by years of therapeutic practice and a commitment to “giving a voice to the unheard and overlooked.” These connections across our communities resist the structural imbalances embedded in the art world. Their admission that they have considered adopting a male pseudonym to be taken more seriously reveals how deeply gendered these barriers remain. Yet they continue to create and gather with us despite those pressures, describing this persistence as “an act of authentic defiance.”
Defiance is essential. Activist and politically engaged art needs room to breathe in an increasingly commercialised landscape. As Anna reminds us, “the arts permeate every meaningful human experience and nourish the cultural bedrock of our society.” Art can communicate and demand attention in ways capitalist structures rarely permit – particularly for marginalised communities. As a curator, my focus remains on freedom of expression and on building sustainable, queer, artist-led spaces rooted in accessibility and inclusivity. We must organise, challenge, and take up space – and institutions must hold themselves accountable for performative marketing that isn’t matched by structural change.
Such values frequently clash with an art world shaped by hierarchy and exclusion. Valentina Baranova, a young queer artist working with gothic and folkloric imagery, names the contradiction plainly: “Art is work, it is a cultural necessity and should be treated as such.” Yet many galleries still charge artists to exhibit, reinforcing paywalls that disproportionately exclude working-class, emerging and marginalised creatives. Real accountability would mean community-responsive initiatives: investing in education, widening financial access, creating non-transactional opportunities – and admitting enabling inequality in the first place.
Despite these systemic barriers, moments of genuine solidarity show us what is possible. We continue to build spaces for one another, resisting tokenism and symbolic inclusion. Exhibitions like The F Word matter because they demonstrate another way of working. They show that care is not abstract. We reject institutional box-ticking and queer-baiting optics, and instead prioritise relationships, mutual support and meaningful platforming. Our audience makes the stakes clear: “accessible, free art spaces like this aren’t a luxury; they’re a political necessity – where marginalised communities can gather and engineer futures beyond the structures that oppress us.”
As queer women and non-binary creatives, we constantly negotiate visibility and integrity – deciding when to step forward and when to protect what is fragile, while navigating someone else’s gender-heteronormative business plan. That tension is exhausting, but it is also where new, equitable forms of support take root. The art world we imagine is radical in its practical care: one where artists are valued, access is widened, and queer communities tell their own stories with nuance. Until then, we continue to build and resist – reaching toward the world Zophiel clearly depicts: one where “imperialist, white-supremacist, capitalist patriarchy has been dismantled.” Honesty must be daily practice, not a diversity checklist.
You can catch The F Word Exhibition featuring 45 women and non-binary artists at Firepit Art Gallery and Studios CIC, Greenwich Peninsula SE10 0XX, Tuesday – Saturday until January 31st 2026. Entry is FREE!
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