Aunt Joy, an online gallery exhibiting contemporary art created by women, is excited to announce ‘Girls Like Us’. A collaboration series launching on International Women’s Day bringing together the incredible talent of creative young girls with established & emerging artists.

Launched in the summer of 2022, Aunt Joy Gallery has swiftly become a vibrant hub for over 50 established and emerging female artists, including notable names like Anita Klein, Sara Pope, Eve De Haan, Nadia Attura, Amy Gardner and Haus Of Lucy. In recent weeks Aunt Joy sent out an international open call to aspiring female artists ages 8-14yrs all over the world to submit a piece of artwork under the theme of ‘JOY’ and the response was overwhelming. Receiving submissions from around the globe, Aunt Joy was thrilled to receive fantastic artworks from abstracts to illustrations and photography from talented young artists.

Jane Dinmore and Ashleigh, age 10. Anita Klein and Betty, age 9.

The Girls Like Us collaboration series is now available to purchase at AuntJoyGallery.com with 50% of sales going to charities that support women and children, including: UN Women, War Child, Sistah Space, Bloody Good Period & Refuge. Each selected young artist will receive one of the limited-edition artworks that their art is featured in.
50% of EACH PURCHASE goes to charities that support WOMEN AND children

At the heart of this collection is a determination to challenge the stark gender disparities in the art world. Shockingly, only 13.7% of living artists represented by galleries in Europe and North America are women, according to a 2022 source. In the UK, however, 73% of students in postgraduate art and design courses are women (2020 source). Aunt Joy Gallery was born out of a desire to shift these statistics and provide a platform for female artists to thrive.

On International Women’s Day Aunt Joy is particularly disgruntled with the statistics on confidence in young girls. Multiple studies show that, between the ages of 8-14, young girls’ confidence levels drop by 30%. (source)

Anita Klein, Artist and president of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers 2003-2006 says,

“I entered a local art competition when I was 10, and I won! It made a huge difference to my confidence. I thought of my 10 year old self when Amy invited me to take part in this year’s Girls Like Us collaboration series. I drew obsessively as a child, so much so that female relatives and friends saved the cardboard out of their tights (“pantyhose”) packets for me, and my mother asked the butcher for spare “butcher paper” (newsprint) for me to draw on when she did her weekly shopping. My drawings were always scenes from my everyday life, and it was to these that I returned to after I grew tired of making the (then fashionable) abstract paintings at art school, and I rediscovered the obsession that has sustained me for more than 40 years.”

Eve de Haan and Lina, age 9, Hannah Shillito and Maxi, age 8

Aunt Joy Gallery Founder Amy Gardner says,

“My intention was to create something that speaks to the imbalance of the current state of representation of women in art, while inspiring creative young girls, and raising funds for incredible charities supporting women and girls.”

“It was very important to me that we opened the call to girls between 8 and 14. The studies show that across these years girls’ confidence levels drop by 30%. It feels to me that it’s across these sensitive formative years that we have the most potential to inspire, when young girls are looking outward, reading society, to see where it is that they might fit in, and what it is that they might strive for” she says.

Gardner continues, “The response to the open call to girls was overwhelming, with incredibly talented entries from across the world as part of the open call, girls were asked what it is that they love about creating art. We saw a strong overriding theme of a desire to create to calm the mind, and help manage emotions, as well as a need to create without barriers and limitations. Which sings so perfectly in tune with what is at the heart of Aunt Joy, the desire to create more space for women in art and carve an easier, freer path for young female creatives. The future of women in art.”