Artist Ellie Shipman talks with Juliet Bailey about her new artwork, Soft Monument, a woven textile created for the Story Exchange at TQEC.

Fabricating Soft Monument: Local Industry, Heritage and Collaboration

Soft Monument is a woven textile artwork by artist Ellie Shipman, created for the Story Exchange, on the ground floor of the Sloane Robinson Building at the University of Bristol’s new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.

Join us to hear about the making of Soft Monument and the rich history of innovation and industry that has shaped the area surrounding the new campus. Through a conversation with the artist and collaborators including Juliet Bailey of Dash and Miller, this event will reveal how local histories, materials and craft have been woven into this landmark public artwork.

Made from British wool and mild steel, Soft Monument is the result of Charting Change, a remarkable two-year artist-led collaboration with community partners and women-led businesses in St Phillips Marsh and Barton Hill. The textile was woven by Dash & Miller and Bristol Weaving Mill, the metalwork was created by Dizzi Lombardo and Lottie Smith, and the panels were pieced together by Jokoto Tailoring.

This talk forms part of the Autumn Art Lecture Series, which explores the public art programme for the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.

About the series

Taking the public art programme for the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC) as its starting point, the Autumn Art Lecture series for 2026 will examine how public art can contribute to the identity and character of a place. This series of four events opens a dialogue between art, innovation, heritage and civic identity.

The public art programme for TQEC was developed to embed creativity into the new campus and to encourage creative exchange and connection between the University and the wider city. Three new site-specific public art commissions offer distinctive responses to the new campus and its context, exploring its connections to innovation and industry, the waterways and green spaces that shape the site, and the communities that will define its future. The programme was delivered in partnership with the Contemporary Art Society *Consultancy.

The Autumn Art Lecture series is hosted by the University of Bristol's Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences.

Find out more about the other events in the Art, Place and Community: Autumn Art Lectures 2026 series.

If you have any questions about this event or the series as a whole, please contact alss-research@bristol.ac.uk.

About the speaker

Ellie Shipman

Ellie Shipman (b. 1989) is an artist based in Bristol. Ellie studied BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, UAL, and MSc Sustainable Development at UWE. Ellie is interested in womanhood; community; sustainability; industry and history - exploring what it means to be human through multimedia artworks using textiles, collage and installation. Pieces are often site specific, participatory or interactive - including people in research, process and product. Ellie works with researchers to translate academic ideas into public art and graphic design; hospitals to design spaces and objects for better care; and museums to create interactive artworks which tell a story.

Description supplied by the event organiser.