The Bell
Heather Peak & Ivan Morison
Commissioned by Foreground as part of Bristol City Council’s Primary/Bristol series of artist commissions for primary schools, Heather & Ivan Morison made a new sculptural intervention especially for Bishop Road Primary School.
Bishop Road distinguishes itself in its approach to Primary years education through a deep commitment to the place of narrative and storytelling within all aspects of the school curriculum. This commitment closely mirrors the central position of narrative in generating Heather & Ivan Morison’s work.
Through extended engagement with the school, its pupils and staff, the Morisons have completed a story for Bishop Road. This story is embedded in and circulates around the manufacture of a totemic object for the school – a newly cast, functional bell to hang in its bell tower.
The artists discovered that the school bell tower has been vacant since the school was built in 1896. However, it was haunted by many different stories in the children’s minds of hearing the bell ring and magical explanations for where it had gone. This led to the decision to cast a new bell for the school at the last remaining bell foundry in the UK, John Taylor Bells in Loughborough. The children of the school council accompanied the artists to see the bell cast and then all 600 pupils participated in a ceremony to greet the bell’s arrival at the school. Now installed in the bell tower, The Bell authors a new presence for Bishop Road Primary within its wider community, ringing out twice a day for the first time in over 120 years.
This project has been made possible through funding from Bristol City Council as part of the Primary Capital Education Programme, with additional funding from Arts Council England, University of the West of England and Henry Moore Foundation. The work is permanently housed at Bishop Road Primary School, Bristol.
