Charting Change is a two-year art commission, taking place during the lead up to the University of Bristol’s new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus opening in September 2026. This commission explores the industrial histories around the site of the new campus and the local area, alongside it’s technological futures.
Artist Ellie Shipman is leading this commission, working with collaborating artists, local people, industry partners and the University. Ellie is delivering a creative programme of participatory events and temporary artworks to explore these themes.
This participatory programme is informing the design of series of woven textile panels which will be installed as a permanent public artwork for the Story Exchange, a publicly accessible space on the ground floor of the new TQEC building.
Programme activity
The commission gives back to those involved through creative skills development, knowledge exchange and social activity. Across Autumn 2024 the programme included; weaving workshops with a network of Somali Elders, led by Dhaqan Collective at Easton Community Centre and Wellspring Settlement and an exhibition titled Work In Progress at St Annes House. The exhibition, by Ellie Shipman with Artist Jack Stiling, was accompanied by a programme of events all honouring women’s work. Ellie has said:
‘Work in Progress, speaks to all kinds of work in progress – from creatively responding to the evolving construction site of the new campus; to exploring the work in progress of how we work – and how far we still have to come in recognising who shaped local industry historically, to who is shaping community and research now and in the future’.
The exhibition was a collaboration with the Barton Hill History Group, who contributed historical artefacts and research towards the exhibition. The artists also worked with the TQEC contractor to source recyclable materials from the construction site for the mechanical, kinetic and interactive sculptures.
Spring 2025 saw Ellie Shipman and Jack Stiling collaborate with Bristol Common Press – an historic printing press and academic team at the University’s Arts Complex – to host a letterpress workshops exploring how women have shaped industry. For one workshop women in Engineering were invited to create a collaborative letterpress poster visualising the different roles and titles we all carry in different ways, blending the personal and professional.
The posters produced with different groups of participants will be featured on A0 poster frames at the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus hoardings and will inform the development of the final textile public artwork launching Sept 2026. All of the events that take place and the people that take part in the Charting Change commission will inform the design of a permanent textile artwork for the Story Exchange.
The Story Exchange
This will be a room on the ground floor room in the new campus building, with a circular seating area designed to bring together expertise and experiences from a wide range of communities.
The new campus has been designed to be both physically and psychologically welcoming. Four winter gardens throughout the main building provide spaces to unwind and boost wellbeing. These atrium spaces incorporate seating areas with foliage for either quiet contemplation or social interaction. Much of the campus, including the Story Exchange, has been shaped in consultation with our civic and community partners.
Public art at TQEC
This is one of three major new public art commissions that will be delivered with the Contemporary Art Society, as the University of Bristol work towards the opening of the TQEC in 2026. The commissions aim to spark curiosity and imagination and help create a place where people feel welcomed.
Charting Change will build on the TQEC artist residencies of 2018-19, and a range of public commissions that have already taken place as part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus development.
