Cover photo: Spazio Darsena Lighting – Condiviso per Zones Portuaires Genova 2021. Foto © Silvia Aresca / U-BOOT Lab
Founded in 2019 by the London-based Studio Light Collective – Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton – with support from the Italian company Formalighting and lighting designer Katia Kolovea of Archifos, the WIL – Women in Lighting network celebrates the role of women professionals in the field of lighting design. The website serves as a reference point and source of inspiration for new generations, aiming to collect and analyze statistics on inclusivity within the lighting design profession.
Giorgia Brusemini is a designer and the Italian ambassador for WIL; we interviewed her to learn about the key aspects of this international project and how she has developed it in Italy.
First of all, from a general perspective, what is the role and mission of Women in Lighting?
«WIL was created to actively support a necessary and overdue gender balance in the industry. The mission includes celebrating, elevating, and creating real opportunities for women professionals—who are numerous—working in the lighting field across various sectors (engineering, architecture, art, entertainment, manufacturing, education, research, and journalism), thus dismantling mechanisms of active discrimination against women and beyond.
One of the most effective and continually growing actions carried out by the project founders is the creation of a large digital database, which collects testimonies and video interviews from numerous women lighting designers and professionals working with light. This is complemented by dynamic online activities that helped us stay connected during the COVID period, the establishment of the WIL Awards, and the launch of an important survey on gender equity aimed at examining both the positive aspects and the areas for improvement within the lighting industry. Additionally, over the years, the database has been enriched with the Women in Entertainment Lighting section, thanks to the support of Ayrton Lighting.»
Why do you believe this is so important for the industry?
«There have been numerous initiatives that the WIL team, along with Ambassadors worldwide, have implemented over the past five years to keep us united and expand the international network it has become. However, I always emphasize the importance of building this database because of its tangible impact. By profiling women designers, it makes them more visible and serves as a powerful tool against the historical erasure that has often left us with a narrative populated solely by men across many fields. This database in the lighting industry now exists and provides extensive information, with names and direct contacts available to journalists, conference organizers, curators, etc. We want to see more women involved, no more panels made up entirely of men, and always the same names on stage. Women in Lighting contributes to the fifth goal of the UN 2030 Agenda by supporting activities that lead to cultural change starting from within our industry.»
To celebrate this five-year milestone, an event was held at the Light+Building trade fair. Can you tell us about it?
«It was an important moment, and the choice to celebrate the anniversary within Light+Building, a business-oriented context, by including it in the official program was also significant. There were profoundly inspiring presentations, with the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) also participating to underscore its steadfast commitment and support for WIL’s aims. In my opinion, the speeches on March 8 by ambassadors from countries such as India, Mexico, Pakistan, Portugal, and Italy were the ones that best highlighted the complexities associated with cultural change, proposing a range of different approaches necessary to achieve WIL’s goals but also suitable for effectively addressing the cultural contexts of their respective countries.»
In Italy, you have promoted many initiatives as an ambassador. What is the situation in our country in terms of equality?
«Unlike in other countries, many of the women professionals working in our sector in Italy are often independent freelancers. They are capable individuals with entrepreneurial activities to manage, but even today, they are still overwhelmingly responsible for caregiving roles within the family. One expects to shoulder responsibilities for childcare, elderly care, and household management as part of the social welfare system. The key has been to imagine opportunities for shared experiences, both in-person and virtual, to strengthen relationships: this led to the creation of initiatives such as adventurous weekend workshops in lighting design, online business training sessions to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset for freelancers, and various empowerment activities. We started to realise that taking time for ourselves together with others makes things happen and stimulates spirits, creativity and dreams. Among the professionals, each with their specialties, both Italian and foreign, continuous collaborations and even large joint projects have emerged, made possible only because we are finally part of a real network we can rely on.»
As an ambassador, how do you approach new colleagues joining WIL Italy?
«My role was, and still is, to listen and facilitate the processes I described earlier, fostering virtuous practices where everyone wins. However, this also involves the challenge of encouraging women to abandon and avoid perpetuating old stereotypes that have always depicted women as competing with each other. I like this quote from Wingee Sin, director of the Cartier Women’s Initiative program, which rewards female entrepreneurial projects that have a social or environmental impact on people’s lives: ‘Women face greater challenges than men in establishing themselves, but we must not allow a world that is not yet inclusive to exclude us. If there aren’t enough role models yet, you can become one. Keep going and dream big!’»
What initiatives are planned, and what does the future hold for WIL Italy?
«The network in Italy is also expanding, probably because new people and organizations are becoming more aware of the many factors that contribute to the gender gap and the responsibility each of us has. They understand that WIL is a real project with tangible goals that require action, even if it means correcting the course and abandoning the mindset of “It has always been done this way.” As for the future, together with lighting designer Martina Frattura, who has generously helped me develop the project in Italy for years, we aim to develop more initiatives by actively involving talented women designers from the network, always with a focus on knowledge-sharing. We are working on this. We also plan to initiate a series of meetings involving organizations and foundations dedicated to combating violence against women, which I’ve connected with over the years through my role as an ambassador.»
Per unirvi alla rete WIL – WIL Italy potete contattare Giorgia Brusemini all’indirizzo: giorgia@womeninlighting.com
