UPDATE 3 June 2025: the artwork has now been completely covered over. Full story here.
The National Trust has declared it is “deeply disappointed” by the unauthorised removal of some pink and blue stitching over JK Rowling’s name on a piece of art it commissioned. Here’s the full story:
On Monday 24 May, the Derbyshire and Staffordshire chapter of WRN – the Women’s Rights Network – put out a tweet thread about a piece of “collaborative” art work called A Virtuous Woman, which is currently on display at Hardwick Hall, a National Trust property in Derbyshire.
A Virtuous Woman was commissioned in collaboration with the University of Leeds. It was conceived and overseen by the artist Layla Khoo, who, according to the National Trust “has drawn inspiration from the 16th century Noblewomen Embroideries at Hardwick Hall”. The artwork invited “visitors to express their choices through participation”.
The idea seems to be that people were encouraged to stitch inspiring words and the names of women they would like to celebrate into some fabric. Here is the finished piece on display at Hardwick Hall:
Names on display include Kamala Harris, Queen Elizabeth, Mary Berry, Tina Turner and Marie Curie.
One embroidered name had been stitched over using blue and pink thread – JK Rowling’s.
A member of WRN Derbyshire and Staffordshire network saw this and was “upset to see that the project that purports to represent and respect women, had singled out one woman’s name to be disrespected” and that “the positioning of the embroidery panel containing JK Rowling’s crossed-out name was quite deliberately and provocatively placed at eye level, so it could not be missed.”
WRN told me when their member saw this stitchwork she raised a verbal complaint with the Hall’s curator. She was told “because it was someone’s view they felt the stitching should stay to respect that one person’s view. When asked where the respect was for the person who originally stitched the name, she could not answer.”
The WRN tweets drawing attention to the stitch-over (and wondering at the “malevolence” of the person responsible), went viral.
On reading WRN’s tweet-thread I approached the National Trust asking who did it, who sanctioned it and how the Trust felt about platforming an act of what some people would call misogyny in a work designed to celebrate women. The Trust responded saying this was a “piece of art formed of participants’ views from a variety of age groups, life experiences and beliefs. Any contributions to the piece were made by those who chose to take part, and participants were free to express themselves and engage with the artwork as they saw fit. None of the views expressed or actions taken by participants represent the views of the National Trust, the artist or the University of Leeds.”
Nasty Act of Spite
The Trust said it did not know the name or sex of the person responsible for the stitch-over, saying that up until November last year, participants were “were able to adapt the artwork to express their opinion, even if they did not originally embroider names.”
WRN Derbyshire and Staffordshire wanted the stitch-over to stand, and called on the National Trust to “add a statement about the crossing out of JK Rowling’s name, explaining the reason it remains. How this nasty act of spite is a symbol of the banality of evil. Where even embroidery is not safe from the woman-hating intolerance of our times.”
As of yesterday, this had not happened. Instead, Jean Hatchet, a woman’s rights campaigner, took matters into her own hands, posting photos and a video of her unstitching the pink and blue thread on the artwork, leaving JK Rowling’s name clearly visible once more.
“Injustice to JK Rowling corrected,” she wrote on X, after she had finished. “Don’t erase the names of women from art or life.”
Hatchet told me “as soon as we saw the pictures of the crossed out name, I said ‘it’s half an hour away’ and we knew there was no other action which would be right… It felt like such a horrible nasty act of the person who did it, we had to undo it. Literally.”
“We made a plan beforehand that I would step over and start unpicking and my partner, Aleks, would stand guard of me. She said ‘Just keep going if anyone tries to stop you’ so I did. I was shaking and it took ages as the stitches were so tight… I was determined to right the wrong. It was disgusting of the person who did it when the aim of the project was to honour women. Undoing the stitches of hatred felt really important in defending, not just JKR, but all of we women who have been silenced by men. The honour returned to women and the shame lies with National Trust and the person who crossed out a woman’s name.”
Aleks said: “We managed to do it by being brazen – we walked in there, crossed the rope ‘barrier’ and just did it… other visitors seemed to assume we were staff or supposed to be there. Because of our calmness no one said a word. There was no staff around, so I didn’t have to beat off any guards!”
I asked the National Trust for their perspective on what Jean and Aleks did. A spokesperson replied: “We are deeply disappointed that visitors tampered with this piece of art on Saturday. It has been closed to new contributions since the end of November last year. While the artwork encourages consideration, debate and discussion, we ask that this is carried out in a respectful way.”
Layla Khoo told me: “Participants contributed to the work last year by embroidering virtues and values and the names of women they felt upheld them. Many names appear multiple times across the embroidery. This participation included the line stitched through a name. Invited participation ended in November 2024. As an artist and researcher, I am interested in the ways participation can engage visitors with heritage sites, and the ways participants choose to take part.”
I asked Khoo what she thought of Jean Hatchet’s participation, but she did not want to comment. Aleks said removing the stitching was “exciting”, and warned: “we’ve stopped asking for our stuff back and we’ve started TAKING it back. We’re only just getting started.”
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