13/02/2025

UK-first bronze sculpture makes history in Nottingham’s Broad Marsh Green Heart

A new addition to Nottingham’s city centre was unveiled this week at Nottingham’s Green Heart in Broad Marsh. The first example of civic art of its kind in the UK, Standing In This Place is the work of sculptor Rachel Carter and community history group The Legacy Makers. It depicts two women in period costume - an enslaved Black woman working in the American cotton fields and a white woman working in the East Midlands’s textile mills.

Standing In This Place makes history as the UK’s first sculpture to recognise this transatlantic story, as well as addressing the imbalance that less than 5% of Britain’s sculptures portray non-royal women - and even fewer are women of colour.

The two women portrayed in the sculpture represent a white mill worker and lace maker, and a Black enslaved woman uprooted to the cotton fields of America. Their stories will be forever intertwined in bronze, reminding Nottingham of its global connections through the cotton trade.

These two women represent more than just themselves, but women's significant contributions to the British economy and society as enslaved workers in the Americas and the Caribbean and factory workers in industrial Britain.

Nottingham became globally recognised for its lace production in the 1800s, which helped to shape the landscape and culture of the city today. Many women worked in the mills and factories alongside their children, forming the backbone of the city’s thriving lace industry. While many of the cotton spinning mills have been demolished, you can still see the buildings used as factories and warehouses in Nottingham’s Lace Market area, such as the Adams Building on Stoney Street and the striking architecture of Broadway.

The sculpture was cast at the Pangolin Editions sculpture foundry in Stroud. The foundry has cast and fabricated sculptures for artists including Jonathan Yeo, Rona Smith, David Bailey, and Damien Hirst.

Funding for this new sculpture has come from many supporters, including Art Fund, Sir Harry Djanogly CBE, Nottingham Regeneration Limited Trust, Nottingham Civic Society, Gedling Borough Council, Wilmott Dixon Construction Ltd, T. Bailey Asset Management, RL Management Ltd, Hallam Agency, Townshend Landscape Architects, and Framework Knitters Guild, along with many other generous public donors.

Jenny Waldman, Director of Art Fund, said “This new public sculpture for Nottingham from local sculptor Rachel Carter is the outcome of a powerful community arts project seeking to address the lack of women – particularly women of colour – represented in public art. I’m so pleased that Art Fund is able to support the National Justice Museum to acquire the first piece of public art for its collection.”

The National Justice Museum will be the custodians of this new bronze sculpture which is the first piece of public art that the National Justice Museum has acquired.

Bev Baker, Head of Collections and Research for the National Justice Museum, said “We are extremely grateful for the support from donors towards making this unique public sculpture a reality. We especially appreciate the due diligence Art Fund took to ensure the project had been rigorously considered and represented the enormous contribution of The Legacy Makers and other participants and all the donors who have generously gifted financial support.

“The National Justice Museum represents justice in all spheres of life, so this is especially meaningful at a time when there has been divisive reaction to public sculpture associated with the history of the transatlantic trade of enslaved people. We have a collection and heritage site that is designed to challenge these narratives, so such a powerful and evocative piece of work must be displayed in a public space to raise awareness and draw in discussions on the history of enslavement, both historical and contemporary.”

Jenny Wizzard, a member of The Legacy Makers group, added “This project highlights for me the important economic, social, and cultural forced labour contribution that people of African descent made to the cotton trade and industries in Britain. They were coerced, enslaved, and transported to the Americas and Caribbean, whilst the profit from their work contributed significantly to the wealth and development of European countries over many centuries.

We are delighted that this project brings long overdue recognition as well as the legitimate right to claim our role in British and world history. Standing In This Place celebrates the triumph of being. It sees the two women acknowledging their connection to cotton. It shows their resilience in the face of exploitation as both an enslaved African woman, and as a white woman mill worker in an era that lay the foundations of the societies we now live in.”

Sculptor Rachel Carter acknowledges the vision shown by community-based groups Bright Ideas Nottingham and The Legacy Makers in achieving the statue.

“We have been on quite a journey to discover the history of slavery in our region. Using a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the community project has gone from scrutinising nineteenth century burial slabs of mill workers in Darley Abbey, where I found my own ancestors, to attracting Arts Council Funding in 2022 for creative workshops.

This sculpture will give representation to the under-represented and give voice and recognition to the contributions of thousands of unnamed women who were the driving forces behind the East Midlands cotton textile industry during Industrialisation.”

For more information about the project, and the many communities and organisations involved, visit https://www.standinginthisplace.co.uk/

You can now visit the sculpture at its final installation site, the Green Heart of Nottingham’s Broad Marsh.