OnFife has accepted the challenge of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) theme with a packed programme of events celebrating the women of Fife.

Over the next week, a series of online events is taking place ranging from a line-dancing workshop and discussion panels to short films and exhibitions.

The theme of IWD 2021 is Choose to Challenge and OnFife’s fantastic programme celebrates and showcases women artists and creatives in the kingdom.

“We are challenging ourselves, and our audiences, to contemplate women in Fife anew, to reflect on our history, to take time for self-care, and to challenge gender bias and inequality,” says Rosie Sim, Creative Instigator at OnFife.

Today (Friday), as part of OnFife’s Shine a Light on Performing Artists campaign, Emma Lynne Harley will share how her work as a performer and theatre director has been impacted by Covid-19 in a short autobiographic film, which premieres at 7pm but will be available to watch throughout March.

On Saturday, there will be a full day of online talks, workshops and short films from creative women in Fife, shared throughout the day to the OnFife Facebook page.

Ranch Dance Fife invites you to have fun as you learn some line dancing moves while actress Rebecca Vaughan (Dalloway, Orlando, Austen’s Women, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) performs a snippet of Dyad Production’s new adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, the 1928 exploration of the impact of poverty and sexual inequality on intellectual freedom and creativity.

At 7 PM on Saturday, OnFife Chief Executive Heather Stuart and broadcaster and author Lisa May Young will be hosting a panel discussion with four inspiring women in Fife: Emma Lynne Harley, Rachael Nixon, Eilidh Ellery, and Rachel Louise Lee.

Tickets for this are £3 and can be booked through the OnFife website.

On Monday, which is International Women’s Day, there will be another panel discussion on ‘A Pioneer of Social Justice: Exploring the Legacy of Jennie Lee’ hosted by Knights Theatre celebrating the remarkable life and achievements of famous Fifer Jennie Lee.

Panellists will include Mary Senior, president of the Scottish Trades Union Congress; Susan Stewart, director of The Open University in Scotland; and Matthew Knights, playwright and founder of Knights Theatre.

Finally, on Friday, OnFife will round off with a rehearsed reading of Matthew Knights’ play Jennie Lee: Tomorrow is a New Day. Born in Lochgelly in 1904, Jennie Lee, a daughter of a miner, became the first-ever Minister for the Arts and a founder of The Open University.

Presented by Knights Theatre, the development of the play began in April 2019 with a workshop in Jennie Lee’s hometown and continues with this final rehearsed reading presented online, with hopes of bringing the story to a physical stage early in 2022.

Women artists are underrepresented in public collections, and Fife’s is no exception. However, there are some very fine examples of work by 19th and 20th-century women artists, some widely known, others less so, many with strong Scottish or Fife connections.

To mark IWD, OnFife has curated an online exhibition on Art UK to celebrate these artists.

For full details of all the events go to www.onfife.com.