Ditchling’s Bold New Exhibition Rewrites Village Legacy — Honoring Survivors and Forgotten Women Artists

In a striking departure from tradition, a new exhibition at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft is rewriting the village’s storied artistic legacy by focusing on long-overlooked female artists and survivors who once lived and worked in the East Sussex village. Titled “Unseen Women: Breaking the Silence of Ditchling’s Past”, the show peels back layers of history to illuminate the vital but too often invisible contributions made by women within the famed Ditchling creative community.

For decades, Ditchling has been synonymous with the names of prominent male figures in British art and design—most notably Eric Gill, a celebrated typographer and sculptor whose legacy has come under intense scrutiny in recent years due to revelations about his personal life. While the artistic achievements of Gill and his male contemporaries have traditionally dominated exhibitions and discourse, “Unseen Women” represents a seismic shift in curatorial vision.

Rather than glorify the village’s better-known patriarchs, the exhibition brings long-silenced voices to the forefront. It highlights women who made significant contributions to craft, design, and community life, yet were overshadowed by their male counterparts or dismissed entirely by mainstream historical narratives.

The museum’s director, Steph Fuller, emphasized that this exhibition is not just a historical reassessment, but also a form of justice. “This is about setting the record straight,” Fuller said in a recent interview. “These women weren’t footnotes to history—they were creators, survivors, and visionaries in their own right.”

Among those featured is Hilary Pepler’s daughter, Marjorie, who was instrumental in the early development of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, yet is rarely mentioned in official accounts. The exhibition also showcases the textiles, printwork, and spiritual writings of women who worked anonymously in communal workshops, their names lost but their creations now proudly on display.

In one corner of the gallery, a collection of hand-woven fabrics sits under carefully directed lighting, each textile a testament to the laborious, meticulous work of women artisans. Some of these pieces, recovered from private estates and forgotten archives, have never before been shown publicly.

Elsewhere, journals and letters are mounted behind glass—delicate but defiant. These documents include entries from women expressing frustration at their exclusion from guild leadership, the emotional toll of being overshadowed by more famous male relatives, and in some cases, experiences of abuse and survival.

One poignant letter from a woman only identified as “E.J.” describes her spiritual disillusionment with the patriarchal structure of the guild. “We labored in silence while they spoke for God,” she writes. Her words have become one of the emotional centerpieces of the show.

Perhaps most controversially, the exhibition directly addresses the troubling aspects of Eric Gill’s biography. While previous displays have danced around Gill’s misconduct, Unseen Women faces it head-on. One gallery room explores how women in the community responded—some choosing to distance themselves, others speaking in whispers about what they saw and experienced.

A powerful video installation juxtaposes images of Gill’s famous typefaces with stark, written testimonies from survivors and their descendants. “We are not defined by the men who harmed us,” reads one quote that lingers long after the footage fades.

This confrontation with past abuse has not come without debate. Critics have asked whether such raw honesty belongs in a space historically known for its reverence of craft. But the museum’s leadership insists that meaningful preservation requires full truth.

A particularly unique aspect of the exhibition is its collaborative structure. Local artists, historians, and descendants of the original guild members were involved in the curation. The museum held listening circles and oral history projects throughout the past year, inviting community members to share personal accounts and family archives.

Workshops and educational sessions accompany the exhibition, allowing visitors to engage with the material on a deeper level. One such workshop, “Reweaving the Past,” invites participants to create new textile art inspired by the stories of forgotten women in the guild.

For many, the exhibition has been a source of catharsis. Visitors have left handwritten notes on a reflection wall, some expressing sorrow for past injustices, others celebrating the reclamation of dignity and agency for those who were once erased.

As Unseen Women draws increasing attention from critics, academics, and art lovers alike, the Ditchling Museum is being hailed as a leader in reimagining how art history is told. The exhibition challenges the comfortable nostalgia often associated with English craft heritage and replaces it with something more dynamic, more inclusive, and undeniably more honest.