VICTORIOUS VOICES x SURVIVORS WEST YORKSHIRE

Leeds, 2025

On 20th February 2025, the fourth Victorious Voices exhibition was presented in partnership with Survivors West Yorkshire at its Making Survivors Visible in Education conference.

After exhibitions in a university foyer and a Manchester coffee shop, this presentation brought survivor portraits and testimonies into a gathering focused on education itself. The black-and-white images gave each participant a presence beyond a case study or statistic. Their accompanying words allowed visitors to hear, in survivors’ own voices, how childhood sexual abuse and the responses that follow can shape a life.

The setting gave the work a particular purpose. Education is often discussed as a place where abuse might be recognised or prevented. It is also a place where survivors’ experiences may be misunderstood, overlooked or left out of the conversations intended to help them. Displaying Victorious Voices at the conference invited people to consider what changes when survivors contribute their knowledge directly.

For Victorious Voices and Survivors West Yorkshire, visibility meant more than placing images on a wall. It meant making room for the people represented in them to be heard on their own terms, alongside those working to improve understanding and support. The exhibition asked attendees to carry those voices into the decisions, teaching and practice that would follow the conference.