A career “speed networking” session involving 850 state school girls and 150 high-profile women took place in the inspiring setting of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall last week.
The women represented a range of careers in the arts and included actress Jenny Agutter, author Kate Mosse, opera singer Amanda Roocroft, singer Jamelia, and television presenter June Sarpong.
It was all part of the Inspiring Women campaign, which encourages women to pledge one hour a year to talk to girls in schools about their job and career routes.
The campaign – which is part of the wider Inspiring the Future careers programme – has now reached a milestone of 15,000 women recruited to volunteer their time. Furthermore, since the campaign launched in October 2013, it has reached almost 290,000 girls and young women across the UK.
Other careers represented at last week’s event included film and documentary directors, journalists and editors, artists and musicians, photographers, producers and designers.
The campaign was founded by Miriam González Durántez, a partner at international law firm Dechert, who spoke at the event alongside Kerstin Mogull, managing director of Tate, and Amanda Berry, chief executive of BAFTA, a partner for this event.
Ms González Durántez said: “We celebrate the success of the Inspiring Women campaign with the biggest event we have organised so far. The fact that so many talented women from all different areas of the arts have come to give up their time to speed date with the girls is just another sign of the strength of the UK Arts worldwide.”
For more information on Inspiring Women, visit www.inspiringthefuture.org/inspiring-women
CAPTION: Careers chats: (from top) Among the high-profile women at the event were Inspiring Women founder Miriam González Durántez; actresses Katie Liu Leung (left) and Helen George; television presenter June Sarpong; artistic director Indhu Rubasingham; actress Jessica Raine; and actress Jenny Agutter (Photos: Em Fitzgerald)