Women of Christ Church Portrait Exhibition
Christ Church, Oxford, is exhibiting 13 new portraits of women as part of the Oxford University college’s commitment to better represent its diverse community.
The 40th anniversary of the arrival of women as undergraduates at Christ Church in 1980-81 provided the impetus to commission the photographs for Women of the House: Portraits of Christ Church.
Students, staff and alumni nominated more than 200 individuals with a Christ Church connection to sit for portraits that would attest to women’s contributions to both the College and the wider world over the past four decades.
The portraits depict alumnae such as Dame Emma Walmsley, OBE, who studied Classics and Modern Languages at Christ Church and is now CEO of GSK, and Dame Joanna Smith DBE, appointed a High Court Judge in 2020.
The Trinidadian-Scottish poet Professor Anthony Vahni Capildeo FRSL, a former English student, is also photographed, as is Professor Dame Clare P. Grey DBE FRS, a Fellow of the Royal Society and professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University.
Dr Henrietta Hughes OBE, the first ever Patient Safety Commissioner for England, and Marina Hyde, a Guardian columnist who studied English at Christ Church, appear in the series, as do the first women to hold the JCR and GCR presidencies and acclaimed musician Libby Burgess, Christ Church’s first female Organ Scholar.
The portraits were taken by the award-winning photographer John Davis. They are being exhibited in Christ Church’s newly refurbished Chapter House before being put on long-term display in key locations throughout the College including in the Hall, Library and Porters’ Lodge.
Women of the House: Portraits of Christ Church is free to view from September 30 through October 30, 2022, between 10:00 and 16:00, Monday to Saturday, and between 14:00 and 16:00 on Sundays.
To access the Chapter House, please enter Christ Church via Tom Gate on St Aldates Street and ask the Porters for directions. Note that the exhibition will be closed on Friday, October 21.