Charting Change - Two year public art commission

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

I am very excited to announce that I have been 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 2026.

Charting Change is a two-year engagement commission which will explore the industrial histories of the site of the new campus alongside its technological futures. The process will focus on engagement with local people, researchers and organisations to develop a series of artworks and events over the two years, all of which will inform my design of a large scale permanent textile artwork in the new building in 2026.

I will be exploring hyper-local histories of womxn in industry, life cycles of industrial materials, and patterns in public and private spaces in the site’s surrounding areas. As part of this programme I have selected Programme Artists Jack Stiling, who is interested in urban change, industry, craft and kinetic sculpture, and dhaqan collective - Ayan Cilmi and Fozia Ismail, a Somali art collective exploring weaving, Somali cultural heritage and material sustainability.

Together we will be hosting workshops, exhibitions, talks and events in Bristol across the two year programme, all of which will be open to all and free to attend. These will feed into my design process of a series of locally-woven textile panels as the permanent artwork, which will exist around a large seating area in the new space for all to see.

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

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.

Photo: Beeston Media, 2024
From left: Site visit with Fozia Ismail and Ayan Cilmi (dhaqan collective), Ellie Shipman, Jack Stiling