Kitchen power: women's experiences of rural electrification
Exhibition investigating domestic electrical appliances during rural electrification in Ireland, and the effect these had on the Irish rural home and on women’s lives.
- Submitting institution
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Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32-79-1781
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- June
- Year of first exhibition
- 2019
- URL
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https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Country-Life/Exhibitions/Kitchen-Power-Women-s-Experiences-of-Rural-Electri
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Kitchen Power is the result of multi-layered research Sorcha O’Brien conducted between 2014 and 2019, primarily through her AHRC Leadership Fellowship (2016-19). O’Brien conducted research at over 10 archives, libraries and museums in Ireland, Germany and Spain. O’Brien organised a 2 year oral history project in which she and 8 volunteers conducted c. 60 interviews with former ESB staff and Irish women who were housewives in the 1950s and 1960s. O’Brien worked with multiple stakeholders to curate the exhibition and accompanying programme, including museum staff, external designers, GMIT Letterfrack, Age & Opportunity, Irish Countrywomen’s Association and textile art project participants.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Kitchen Power: Women’s Experiences of Rural Electrification (2019–20) was curated by O’Brien and Noel Campbell of the National
Museum of Ireland – Country Life, and funded by the Museum and the AHRC, with support from the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), Irish
Farmer’s Journal, Age & Opportunity, and Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterfrack (GMIT). It was the flagship temporary
exhibition at the Museum for 2019–2020 and is part of the museum’s ongoing transition from folklife towards Irish material culture. The
exhibition included domestic appliances and advertisements of the era, 1950s ESB/ICA (Irish Countrywomen’s Association) model
kitchen reconstructed by GMIT, textile artwork commissioned by Age & Opportunity and oral history audio clips. Findings included
a rethinking of the ways in which modernity was brought to the Irish home, with modern appliances included in traditional kitchen
layouts, alongside traditional furniture, until the fitted kitchen became widespread in the 1970s. The oral histories collected by
O’Brien provide a narrative of relief from drudgery in housework, and widespread positive attitudes to electricity amongst rural women,
both then and now. As well as approximate visitor numbers of 96,000 [the exhibition closed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic], the
research was disseminated through public talks, national television, national and local radio and newspapers.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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