The Women's Appeal for Peace, 1923-24.
In 1923, Welsh women organized a campaign for world peace asking America to join forces and to lead the new League of Nations. 390,296 women signed a Memorial petition through the League of Nations’ Welsh Union over a 6-month period calling for 'Law not War'. The signatures were carefully placed in an oak chest specially created for shipment to the United States. In March 1924 a delegation, led by Annie Hughes Griffiths, travelled from Wales to America to present them to US women and enlist the support of American women's organisations representing over 20 million people. They also visited President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.
It is a privilege to curate Pethau Bychain this year as I have had the excellent opportunity to take time reflecting on work and other creative acts and to appreciate them more. This is certainly the case here. There is little that could represent the concept of hope and enlightenment in bleak times more than that of Annie Hughes Griffiths and her fellow pacifists. And what better than to use this act as inspiration for a piece of work that is not only creative but also captures the spirit of the original idea.
The launch of the Pethau Bychain project will be slightly different this year, so rather than presenting a finished piece of work as the first choice, Wales Arts International in collaboration with the Welsh Peace Academy is launching ‘From Welsh Women to the World.’ This is a call to mark the 100th anniversary of the Welsh delegation's inspiring journey to the US, and to celebrate International Women's Day 2024. The aim is to create new work that will motivate us to work for a world free of war.
The project invites today’s women to embroider their signatures in a series of workshops led by Bethan M. Hughes echoing the original petition in 1924, with the final piece being displayed at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in July this year.
Inspired by the Women's Peace Petition of Wales 1923-4, which saw nearly 400,000 women sign a petition calling for Peace and led a delegation to America to appeal to that nation’s women to use their influence to urge the US government to join the League of Nations, the aim is to produce a creative interpretation of the original petition in stitch, through a series of workshops both in person and online with a hope of inspiring women from all corners of the world to use their voice and creativity to call for peace.
Websites and social media
Websites: www.wai.org.uk/wales-arts-international/wai-homepage
www.wcia.org.uk/academiheddwch
Instagram: @waicymruwales
X: @WAICymruWales @AcademiHeddwch
Ani Glass is our guest curator for #PethauBychain 2024. Read about the theme she chose and the other selected projects here: