Betty Campbell Statue

Betty Campbell Monument Nominated for Prestigious Award

The Betty Campbell Monument situated in Cardiff has been nominated for the Prestigious Public Statues and Sculpture Association Marsh Award.

The Betty Campbell Monument, located in Cardiff City Centre has been shortlisted for a prestigious Public Statues and Sculpture Association Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture.  The impressive statue, designed and created by renowned figurative sculptor Eve Shepherd, was unveiled in Cardiff city centre in September 2021 following a campaign by the Monumental Welsh Women group.

The Public Statues and Sculpture Association Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture is usually decided by a judging panel. This year, however, the body is also giving the public a chance to vote for its favourite work.

People are invited to vote from a shortlist of nine public works of sculpture from across the UK. The Betty Campbell Monument is the only work to be nominated from Wales.

Voting is taking place online via the Public Statues and Sculpture Association website here. The shortlist is as follows:

  • Alex Chinneck, A Spring in your Step, Circus Street, Brighton, Sussex
  • Alexandre da Cunha, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset, Battersea Power Station Underground, London SW8
  • Laurence Edwards, A Rich Seam, Print Office Street, Doncaster, West Yorkshire
  • Laurence Edwards, Yoxman, The Suffolk Colossus, Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suffolk
  • Diane Lawrenson, Contemplation, Anne Lister, Piece Hall, Halifax, West Yorkshire
  • Veronica Ryan, Custard Apple (Annonaceae), Breadfruit (Moraceae) and Soursop (Annonaceae), Narrow Way Square, Hackney, London E8
  • Eve Shepherd, The Betty Campbell Monument, Central Square, Cardiff, Wales
  • Lee Simmons – The Tay Whale, Dundee Waterfront, Dundee, Scotland
  • Ben Twiston-Davies, Ebenezer Howard, Howardsgate, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

The winner will be announced at 6pm on November 24th as part of an online ceremony.

The Betty Campbell Monument is the first of five statues of named Welsh women being erected by Monumental Welsh Women and was the first ever statue of a non-fictionalised Welsh woman to be erected in a public space in Wales. Betty Campbell was born in 1934 in Cardiff’s docklands area to a Jamaican father and Welsh Barbadian mother. After growing up in Tiger Bay, Betty Campbell worked as a teacher in multi-racial areas of the city, first in Llanrumney and then at her local Mount Stuart Primary School. She later became headteacher at Mount Stuart school and continued to champion her nation’s multicultural heritage, becoming inspired by the US Civil Rights movement and teaching her own students about slavery and black history. Campbell went on to help create Black History Month and served in a number of influential roles, including as a member of the Home Office’s race advisory committee.

You can read Gary Raymond’s review of the Betty Campbell monument here.