Charting Change - Two year public art commission

Lead artist on two year public art project Charting Change for the University of Bristol's new Temple Quarter building

In Feb 2024 I was appointed as Lead Artist for Charting Change, a major two-year public art project for the University of Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, opening next to Bristol Temple Meads station in Sept 2026.

Charting Change is a two-year engagement commission which explores how women have shaped the industrial history around the site of the new campus and how we will shape its technological futures. Working closely with Programme Artist Jack Stiling, we have created temporary artworks and co-hosted an engagement programme of events, exhibitions, workshops, community visits and collaborations with local industry throughout the two years.

This programme and research has informed my final design of the largescale permanent textile artwork which will surround a circular seating area in the Story Exchange in the new building. The work, SOFT MONUMENT, is an homage to the women who have shaped industry in Barton Hill and East Bristol in the past, present and future.

The fabrication budget has been spent on supporting local women-led businesses as a continuation of the concept of the work. The fourteen 120cm x 370cm textile panels are being woven using British wool within half a mile of the site by women-led textile design studio Dash & Miller and the Bristol Weaving Mill. The metalwork elements are being fabricated by female metalworkers at metal studio WTF - Women Teaching Fabrication, also within half a mile of the site. 

We are now beginning the fabrication process of the works, and will host community events as we build towards the launch in Sept 2026. Please get in touch if you would like to join the launch events. 

It is a real honour to have been selected for this commission, building on my long term interests in women's labour, urban change and social practice and drawing on my own methodologies for creative engagement and placemaking.

The Engagement Programme has included:

• Collaborating with Bristol Common Press, researchers in Engineering and students in Philosophy to create letterpress posters exploring our roles and personal lives as women in research which were featured on large format posters on the TQEC site.
• Collaborating with WTF Workshops to host a free welding workshop for local women over 60 to weld their own crowns representing their personal labour. The workshop was introduced by Garry Atterton of Barton Hill History Group who gave a talk on the history of women metal workers in the area. The photo series Women Welders came from this project and are featured on large format posters on Ducie Road at Wellspring Settlement.
• Community visits with Ayeeyo and Awoowo group to the University of Bristol's Botanic Gardens and to Dash & Miller and the Bristol Weaving Mill to explore natural materials and weaving practices.
• Girls Build Amazing Things - Free construction play and reading workshop for girls aged 8+ and families at the Little Library in the Barton Hill Microcampus.
• Free drop in sewing workshops at the University of Bristol Barton Hill Microcampus, for Bristol residents and UoB researchers.
• Exhibition Charting Change: WORK IN PROGRESS, sculptures and photography by Ellie Shipman and Jack Stiling in collaboration with Barton Hill History Group, from 21 - 23rd Nov at St Anne's House. 

Find out more at public-art.bristol.ac.uk
Follow the University of Bristol’s Instagram @bristol_uni_publicart for updates.
The commission is part of the TQEC public art programme led by Contemporary Art Society *Consultancy.