shields aimed to provide a voice for women on the theme of war and peace. Initiated in 1996 by 5 women artists called Women in Action (Veronica Calarco, Tess Horwitz, Sue Pedley, Paloma Ramos, Bronwen Sandland) with the aim of creating an installation for the Second Canberra National Sculpture Forum, shields evolved into a large-scale community project that produced 1000 works from hundreds of women in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, and, through networks, from all round Australia and overseas. Grants were obtained enabling workshops and exhibitions during 1997-1999 in Lennox Gardens Canberra, Footscray Community Art Centre Melbourne, and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre Sydney. There was no selection process in shields. Leaf-shaped metal frames were provided to work within but, apart from that, the works were diverse, wayward and surprising; rarely about glorification of the dead but expressions of hope, sorrow and loss, fragments of memory, paeans to the sustenance of life, political calls to action.
