Artist and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert had teamed up with Lionesses’ favourite singer Kate Nash to support Lewes FC, a 100% community-owned football club with a with a radical gender equality stance.
Using her iconic Eye symbol, artist and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert has designed special edition football kits for Lewes FC, launching their “See Us as We Are” campaign. The 100% community owned club is the first to give equal pay to their female and male players.
“I’m so happy to support Lewes FC and their ground-breaking work. They are actively enacting the changes they want to see and that is so inspiring”, enthuses Colbert.
Kate Nash chimes in, “I love Charlotte’s work – and I love football.”
The singer whose hit, Foundations, was the England Lionesses squad’s pre-match singalong during the Women’s World Cup 2023 adds, “Community is more important than ever at the moment – community can save democracy.” “You can become an owner for £50 on the Lewes FC website and support this amazing team to get to the… premier league!”, says Colbert. “Go Rooks!,” Nash and Colbert blurt out, citing the team’s nickname simultaneously before laughing.
Lending her powerful feminist vision to her home football club, the kit and a range of merchandise features Colbert’s totemic eye motif for their “See Us as We Are”, campaign. Lewes FC became the first club in the world to pay its women and men players equally back in 2017. It is also community- owned – with fans having access to ownership from £50 a year – and advocates for equality across all sports and industries.
Acclaim
The last couple of years have accelerated Colbert’s already successful course through the art world and film industry. In 2022, she released her first feature film, a feminist parable She Will, which she directed – staring Malcolm McDowell, Rupert Everett, Alice Krige and Kota Eberhart.
The film received much critical praise and blanket four-star reviews and significant acclaim from The Guardian, The Times, The New York Times, The Evening Standard and Empire.
Last October 2023 during Frieze art fair, Colbert followed-up her movie’s success with an art exhibition at Fitzrovia Chapel, London curated by UTA and Simon de Pury. Dreamland Sirens was a solo show that included monumental sculptures, a music collaboration with Isabel Waller-Bridge and performances by Adhel Bol. Her symbolic eye emblem guided onlookers through the looking-glass into an immersive and surrealist exploration of dreamscapes to ask the question: “Which dreams and utopias can we magick into the world?’.
Now that eye motif will be on the playing shirts to magic support for the aspirations of the club – and the radical change that they are hoping for, outlined by their ‘See Us as We Are’ campaign. Football kits, tracksuits, as well as range of merchandise and matchday posters have been produced to support the club. “My work is often about utopias and narratives and how we can envisage positive alternative futures for ourselves. Lewes FC with its ground-breaking work on gender equality for players, its welcoming and catering to different demographics at the home ground, and human-centred footballing strategy, is actively enacting the changes it advocates for. The eye on the shirt symbolises visibility and positive dreams”.
Unique
“Women’s football is growing fast”, says the club, ‘It’s inspiring a new generation of young (and older) women – the potential for the sport is huge. If the women’s game can develop according to its own values and qualities, it will become something unique and powerful.”
This season, Lewes FC’s Women’s team – famous for being the first pro or semi-pro team to be resourced equitably to their male counterparts – are set to wear the special edition shirt for their pre-season matches kicking off on July 21st.
Lewes FC’s Special Projects lead, Karen Dobres, one of the architects of Lewes’ equality campaign, commented, “We were relegated last season because we couldn’t compete financially with women’s teams subsidised by their Premier League men’s sides. This season we are bouncing back, re-committing to our strong values, as well as our fantastic community of fans and owners. We are delighted that Charlotte – who is of course one of our 2,500 single-share owners – is using her talent and platform to promote the club’s radical strategy in this way, and hope that lots of people will buy the amazing merch associated with the eye. We think our players will enjoy wearing their training gear too – it looks really cool”.
Charlotte Colbert and Lewes FC’s “See Us as We Are” is live at www.lewesfc.com/eye.
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