Standing In This Place sculpture by Rachel Carter, Nottingham

Earlier today I went into Nottingham city centre to take photos of this recently unveiled sculpture in The Green Heart, Nottingham’s newest green space near the Central Library and on the way up from the train station. The statue represents a white lace worker and a black enslaved woman greeting each other. As someone from a long line of men and women who worked in the Nottingham lace trade from working in factories to designing lace patterns the fact that none of their work would have been possible without the cotton supplied by enslaved people has never been lost on me but it’s not something that gets highlighted as much as it should and this sculpture goes some way to rectifying that as well as emphasising the contributions made by women to the economy and society in general.

It was created by sculptor Rachel Carter and the Black-led Legacy Makers group who have done an excellent job – made from bronze the draping of the clothing is particularly well done.

Given that only around 17% of statues in the UK depict women and most of them seem to be either Queen Victoria or naked mythical creatures and only 2% are of ethnic minorities this is an important statue that’s located in a place with a lot of footfall so hopefully people will take a peek. There’s also an information sign next to it giving some details of the project and it has its own website here.

It also occured to me while I was there that although I’ve been through the Green Heart many times since it opened last year I’ve not actually taken any photos or posted about it. It’s not really looking it’s best at the moment given that it’s February but the seating was being well used even though it was quite cold. It’s part of the regeneration of this area of the city after the demolition of the Broadmarsh shopping centre and includes pathways, trees, flowers and water features along with seating all over; the area is finally starting to look like somewhere you actually want to spend time in.