The hearts were made by local residents at a number of free drop-in workshops with Merseyside-based community arts organisation Heart of Glass.
The sessions, led by internationally known artist and mosaicist Carrie Reichardt, took place between March and June 2024 as part of the Strong Women project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. They gave residents, community groups and schoolchildren in Knowsley a chance to make and decorate their own heart shaped clay tile, celebrating a woman/women who has/have inspired them.
Participants and the wider local community are invited to join artist Carrie Reichardt to help piece together the 540 fired and glazed ceramic tile hearts, to create the final artwork.
Drop in sessions: Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th July, 10.30am to 4.30pm at Centre 63, Old Hall Street, Kirkby, L32 5TH.
Final artwork reveal and community celebration: Saturday 20th July, 4pm next door to The Coffee House, Centre Retail Park, Kirkby.
St Helens artist and project mentee Claire Eddleston has also created a smaller artwork for St Marie’s Catholic Primary School, dedicated to the school community’s strong women.
Artist Carrie Reichardt says:
‘This commission has been a joyous experience. Learning about all the courageous and feisty women, bringing that to life through creativity and working with so many inspiring local people to explore this ‘herstory’. I am so excited to see how it looks when we finally make the final mosaic with over 500 ceramic hearts made by the people of Knowsley.”
Debi O’Shea, Chair of Northwood Together says:
“I was drawn to it because I think it’s a beautiful way of recognising all the strong women we have around us. I’ve loved the experience of making the hearts – it felt really special, and meeting new women and hearing new stories has been great.”
Angharad Williams, Head of Programme at Heart of Glass says:
“Like many places, Knowsley lacks major public art which celebrates women, and especially working class women. By bringing together communities across the borough with an exceptional artist like Carrie we hope to help address this and publicly celebrate Knowsley’s amazing strong women.”
Residents were also invited to take part in oral history training with community historian Greig Campbell and Samantha Best, a Knowsley-based historian with a particular interest in women’s history. The group collected stories including women’s memories from the borough’s factory floors, and tales of working class activism and community action. The recordings include more recent memories too, including the development of the area’s The Eco Therapy Garden CIC by a local entrepreneur, therapist and grandmother, the evolution of Merseyside’s Black Lives Matter movement, as well as reflections from a migrant who settled in the area after escaping persecution in her home country. All the recordings will be archived at Knowsley Archives.
The Knowsley artworks follow on from Strong Women of St Helens, a ‘sister’ artwork that was unveiled in Parr, St Helens in summer 2023..
The two year project aims to capture and highlight the untold stories of women in St Helens and Knowsley and celebrate their contributions to the boroughs. It explores women’s and LGBTQIA+ people’s role within the history of street art, and offers a schools programme with free learning resources for teachers to explore street art and local history in the classroom.
The Strong Women programme is made possible with support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund with thanks to National Lottery players. It forms part of Heart of Glass’ Arts Council England supported Creative People and Places programme. Special thanks to Knowsley Council and Knowsley Archives.
Organisations, participants and groups involved in the project so far include: Centre 63, The Eco Therapy Garden CIC, Halewood Youth in Community Centre (Boyzee), Huyton residents, Kirkby C of E Primary School, Kirkby Christian Fellowship, Kirkby Library, Knowsley Archives, The Maples, Make Huyton Village, Northwood Mums, Northwood Together, St Marie’s Catholic Primary School, Stockbridge Village Library and U3A Kirkby.
For more information contact Lucie Davies, Head of Marketing Communications on lucie@heartofglass.org.uk or Sinéad Nunes, Marketing Manager on sinead@heartofglass.org.uk
About Heart of Glass
Heart of Glass is a Merseyside-based community arts organisation. We believe that art has the power to bring us together and create real change, for the people of our community, and the place we call home. Through collaboration and conversation, we bring meaningful art projects to the most surprising of spaces throughout St Helens, Knowsley and beyond. Our philosophy is simple: art belongs everywhere, to everyone. heartofglass.org.uk
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
As the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Over the next ten years, we aim to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to bring about benefits for people, places and the natural environment.
We help protect, transform and share the things from the past that people care about, from popular museums and historic places, our natural environment and fragile species, to the languages and cultural traditions that celebrate who we are. We are passionate about heritage and committed to driving innovation and collaboration to make a positive difference to people’s lives today, while leaving a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund heritagefund.org.uk
About Carrie Reichardt
Carrie is a self-titled craftivist and renegade potter who uses a mix of mural, mosaic and screenprinting techniques to create elaborate, often politicised works of art. Carrie has been involved in an international community and public art projects for over 20 years. Her recent work includes Voodoo Zulu Liberation Taxi which was recently displayed at Coventry Transport Museum, raising awareness about the inhumane treatment of prisoners held in solitary confinement and death rows. Other prominent public works include Dada the Trojan Horse, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, and Mary Bamber – a Revolutionary Woman for the Museum of Liverpool. More recently she was recently invited to create a new commission for British Ceramics Biennial 2023. carriereichardt.com