Date set for public unveiling of an inspiring sculpture

A new artwork pays tribute to an enslaved woman who crossed an ocean to find freedom on Tyneside. TONY HENDERSON reports

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The Mary Ann Macham sculpture as artist Keith Barrett worked on the design

THE unveiling is to take place of a bronze sculpture of an enslaved woman in the Tyneside town where she made a new life after fleeing from America.

The image of Mary Ann Macham will be installed above the new Riverside Embankment Walkway linking North Shields town centre with the Fish Quay and views out to sea.

The artwork will be officially unveiled this Thursday at 1pm by the Elected Mayor of North Tyneside, Karen Clark.

The three-metre high bronze figure, created by North Shields artist Keith Barrett, will be sited close to where Mary Ann once lived. The project is supported by the North East Combined Authority through the Transforming Cities Fund.

It portrays a moment of freedom and resilience and is part of the North Shields 800 celebrations - a yearlong programme recognising the town’s diverse history.

Mary Ann fled a Virginia plantation, evading capture and stowing away aboard a ship to Europe. She arrived in North Shields by road on Christmas Day 1831, where she was taken in by the local Spence family - prominent Quakers who campaigned for the abolition of slavery.

In his two-year project, Keith has combined the imagery of Mary Ann in the style of a ship's figurehead but also portrayed as a real person, with outstretched arms, shackles and broken chains.

“She is pictured at the moment of freedom. I was anxious to get as close as I could to the one picture we have of her,’ said Keith.