Between Empowerment and Constraint: Participatory Art Confronting Double Marginalisation in Rural Women’s Circles

TThis article examines the use of participatory arts-based research (PABR) to document and disseminate rural women’s non-academic knowledge of tradition and explores how such knowledge might inform the work of government institutions in Poland. The study engaged members of the Rural Women’s Circle (Koło Gospodyń Wiejskich, KGW) in Wyrzeka—one of the oldest and most widespread rural women’s associations—as co-creators in an artistic project designed to provide a space for self-expression outside state-defined frameworks. While KGWs are publicly legitimized as ambassadors of tradition and folklore, their role in defining and updating this knowledge remains marginal; institutional narratives dominate, often instrumentalizing their work for political purposes. Drawing on feminist epistemology, the project employed accessible visual arts methods, including collage, to: (a) reclaim women’s subjectivity within tradition narratives; (b) reach audiences beyond government channels; and (c) produce contextually relevant research through collaboration with women whose contributions are undervalued both for their non-academic status and for the gendered character of their expertise. The findings highlight the persistent marginalization of women’s experiential knowledge within heritage discourse and the potential of PABR to challenge this imbalance.