Black History Month Senior School Assembly

To celebrate Black History Month Penny Huntsman, Head of History of Art, gave a moving and thought-provoking speech on the artwork of Chris Ofili.

Ofili’s work challenges prejudice in society, and raises awareness of systemic racism. Mrs Huntsman demonstrated how his piece entitled No Woman No Cry, part of his Turner Prize-winning exhibition of 1998, was a rallying point for anti-racist activism. We learnt that each tear shed by the weeping woman was composed of a collaged image of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager who was murdered in 1993. Stephen’s mother, Doreen Lawrence, led a successful campaign for an enquiry into his unsolved murder; chaired by Sir William Macpherson, this report declared the police institutionally racist and resulted in huge changes in the UK’s police force.

Mrs Huntsman then showed that although Ofili’s challenge to racism is still sadly needed in today’s society, the value we place on art created by black and minority ethic artists is beginning to take its rightful place in the centre of the UK’s cultural heritage.