News / Edward Colston
Colston statue goes on permanent display at M Shed
The Colston statue is now at the centre of a new permanent display at the M Shed.
The exhibition also features other items including placards from the day the statue was toppled during a Black Lives Matter march, a t-shirt by Banksy with all profits handed to the four people put on trial for criminal damage “so they can go for a pint” and the controversial plaque that was made in 2019 but never put on the now-empty plinth.
There is also an intriguing reason why the bronze statue is lying prone inside a glass case: not only to protect the statue itself but also to protect the graffiti that was daubed on it on June 7 2020.
is needed now More than ever
The exhibition officially opens on Friday in the Bristol People gallery on the first floor of the M Shed alongside displays documenting other protests throughout our city’s history.
Bristol Museums’ senior curator of history, Helen McConnell Simpson, said that she feels “really moved” seeing the permanent exhibition coming to fruition.
She told Bristol24/7: “This is an important story and conversation in terms of not just the country at the moment but also in terms of the city.
“Of the key things that make Bristol Bristol, I think that this really gets to the heart of some of that .
“So it’s really important to me that we are able to share something quite brave and bold in M Shed to contribute to that conversation.”
Placards from the BLM protest on June 7 2020 are on display around the statue – photo: Martin Booth
McConnell Simpson added: “The working group wanted the museum voice to be relatively neutral but to have strong views in the space that were attributed to different people.
“So that’s why we have tried to use lots of quotes, we’ve got video of people speaking to camera, we’ve got spoken word, we’ve got a lot of photography from local photographers.
“And so we’ve tried to really allow those voices to be in the space.”
On display in the exhibition is a t-shirt made by Banksy, the sales of which raised money for the legal fees of the Colston 4 – photo: Martin Booth
Part of the display features a lengthy quote from Marvin Rees, with the mayor’s office working closely with the museum service on the contents of the exhibition.
This is Rees’ quote in full: “I have lots of thoughts and feelings about the Colston statue, what happened to it and what happened around it. Its place of honour in the middle of Bristol was objectionable to me. I’m Jamaican. He may have traded one of my ancestors. Having said that, as Mayor of the city, I cannot condone people taking ropes to haul it down. And yet, at the same time, I cannot help but see and feel the historical poetry in the way the statue was treated that day.
“I do think some people have failed to understand, or perhaps chosen to overlook, the dynamic that exists between me, as a mixed-race black man from a working-class family, and Mayor, and what happened to the statue. It is complicated.
“It was an event that offers the opportunity to peel the layers back for deeper insights. For example, the statue was pulled down by four white people in a pre-meditated act, in public, in full view of police, on camera. They were all charged with criminal damage and opted to plead not guilty, taking their cases to the Crown Court. Their defences included that their sensibilities were offended by the statue, and they criticised the city’s elected black leadership for not doing enough on racism.
“So I ask whether four black people would have the confidence to take such a gamble and, if they had, would they have had the same likelihood of a not guilty verdict? If not, then what we saw was an exercise in middle-class white privilege, alongside a declaration of anti-racism. A number of things can be true at the same time.
“We have seen that dramatic symbolic acts can be important catalysts for change. For example, the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 led to two Race Relations Acts. But when symbolic acts are not accompanied by programmes of concrete action, they can be more about satisfying the immediate, emotional needs of members of privileged groups, than about changing the actual political and economic status of people in oppressed groups.”
A police riot shield found in a front garden following the Stokes Croft riots of 2011 forms part of the protest exhibition – photo: Martin Booth
Three members of the ‘Red Rebel Brigade’ are on display in front of a black and white photograph of a rally on College Green in 2020 at which Greta Thunberg spoke – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
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