The cover for the joint programme for our three games in the next 10 days was created by artist, Edith Whitehead.

The cover is part of Edith’s series, ‘Portraits of an Essex Girl’, featuring women and non-binary people from Essex. 

Edith is running a kickstarter campaign to get these portraits on billboards, in train station and shopping centres. Go here to contribute.

If you are interested in Edith’s work you can check out their website and their Instagram.

For the cover, Edith shot Clapton member, Annabel Staff, who shares what Clapton means to her here.

Edith told us a little more about the project…

I grew up in Brentwood. I left Essex and moved to London when I was 19.

There were many reasons for the move – independence, work, self-discovery, but a major one was that I felt at odds with home, wrestling with being a queer and not-very-feminine person in a place with such a strongly held stereotype of our women by those beyond it. 

Portraits of Essex is a love letter to the county that raised me. It’s telling everyone who’s ever felt at odds here that they are welcome. It’s standing side-by-side with those who’ve been stereotyped and looked down upon and saying they are valid. It’s showing those to come that this place is somewhere they can be whoever they want to be.

There are a lot of people who don’t have power over their own stories. Public art reminds us that we should try to own and embrace our own stories, and challenge our ideas of those we’re being told. 

My kickstarter campaign will get this project out there and visible in public places such as bus stops, train stations or shopping centres. If you can, please go and support it.

The programme will be available at our home games against C.B. Hounslow United Reserves, Crystal Palace WFC Development and NW London FC. See our fixtures page for details.