Aunt Joy's Girls Like Us Launches For International Women's Day

London based Aunt Joy Gallery has launched a search for budding young female artists to take part in their annual ‘Girls Like Us’ charity campaign for International Women’s Day.

Girls Like Us forms a unique and inspiring call to arms for tomorrow’s generation of female creators, pairing them with established female artists to create works in collaboration.

Aunt Joy, the online gallery exhibiting contemporary art created solely by women, is behind the Girls Like Us project. This collaborative series launches on International Women’s Day and brings together the incredible talent of creative young girls with established & emerging artists, offering a sneak peak at the future of art by women.

Aunt Joy has put out an international call out to aspiring female artists ages 8–14 everywhere to submit a piece of artwork under the theme of ‘JOY’ and the response has so far been overwhelming. Receiving submissions from across the world Aunt Joy was thrilled to receive fantastic artworks, from abstract paintings, to illustrations and photography from talented young artists.

The “Girls Like Us” collaboration series includes a collection of limited edition prints and original paintings, all created by featured Aunt Joy artists, with the selected artworks by the young girls at the core. Each selected young artist will receive one of the limited-edition artworks that their art is featured in from the collaborating artist.

Available to purchase at AuntJoyGallery.com With each purchase, 50% of the proceeds will be donated to a pool of charities supporting women and children, including UN Women, War Child, Refuge, Sistah Space, and Bloody Good Period.

Since its launch in the summer of 2022, Aunt Joy Gallery has swiftly become a vibrant hub for over 40 established and emerging female artists, including notable names like Anita Klein, Sara Pope, Nadia Attura, Amy Gardner, STEFDIES, and Haus Of Lucy.

Its mission is to create more space for women in art and pave an easier path for the younger generation of female creatives. Multiple studies show that, between the ages of 8–14, young girls’ confidence levels drop by 30%. (source) It is at this age range that Aunt Joy feels there is the most opportunity to inspire.

In a still overwhelmingly a male dominated industry, the art world still has some way to go achieve anything close to equal representation for their female counterparts. According to a study conducted by the National Museum of Women in the Arts only 13.7% of living artists represented by galleries in Europe and North America are women (source) However in the UK, 73% of students on postgraduate art and design courses are women according to a study by Dr Kate McMillan for the Freedom Foundation (source).

The Open Call for young artists to submit their work closes on 7 February. https://auntjoygallery.com/pages/girls-like-us

From 8 March, art lovers will be able to view the works here: https://auntjoygallery.com/pages/shop-the-girls-like-us-collection

You can follow Aunt Joy on Instagram @auntjoygallery