Stained glass window designs created to honour the history and heritage of the black diaspora in Bristol have just gone on display in Bristol Cathedral.
The Cathedral invited the public to submit designs for a new permanent artwork that would honour the resilience, cultural richness and contributions of people of African and African-Caribbean heritage to Bristol as part of its All God’s Children project.
The project is part of the Cathedral’s work to understand its links with the transatlantic trade of enslaved people.
Research that informed the exhibition discovered that between 1670 and 1900, roughly 1,000 people were buried or memorialised in the Cathedral and its grounds.
Around 200 (20%) of them had a close connection to the slavery-based economy.
This latest stained glass commission forms part of a wider programme through which the Cathedral is responding openly and responsibly to its historic connections to the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of African people.
Artists were encouraged to respond creatively to the Cathedral as both a sacred place of worship and a shared civic building – a place shaped by the past, but belonging to the whole city today.
Twenty artists responded, and following a careful selection process, this has now been whittled down to three whose designs are now on display for public comment until February 17 when the commissioned artist will be announced.
It is hoped the artwork will be displayed in a window in the north transept next to the Colson window which was originally covered up in 2020 following the toppling of his statue as part of the Black Lives Matters protests in the city, and has since been renamed with new signage reflecting Colson’s role in the slave trade.
