National Museums Liverpool is pleased to announce that digital sculptor Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark has been awarded the £30,000 contract to lead the artistic direction and development of the iron panels that will form part of the International Slavery Museum’s new Entrance Pavilion.
Selected from more than 150 applicants, Rayvenn will work with architects, structural engineers, fabricators, and community partners to reflect the histories, legacies, and lived experiences represented in the museum.
The panels will be the visible ‘skin’ of the Entrance Pavilion (designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, with planning permission given in October 2024), symbolically transforming iron, once used in chains and manacles, and deeply ingrained in the infrastructure of transatlantic slavery, into a material of remembrance and resilience.
The significance of the Entrance Pavilion was recently recognised with a £200,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation towards its construction.
Michelle Charters OBE, Head of International Slavery Museum, said:
“In a hugely competitive field, Rayvenn impressed us not just with her ideas, experience and creativity, but also by how much collaboration was instinctively embedded in her practice, using art as a tool for civic connection and collective cultural memory.
“We are looking forward to inviting Rayvenn, a rising star in the international art world, to Liverpool, to meet our passionate community stakeholders and develop together panel designs for the Entrance Pavilion and create a lasting legacy for a structure that is central to the International Slavery Museum’s transformation, and a powerful statement that our ancestors will never be forgotten.
“It was a privilege to look through the many talented and inspiring artists who applied, and on behalf of all the jurors, we would like to thank all those who took the time to engage with the project to produce such high-quality applications.”
Rayvenn is well-versed in public art projects that drive social change. Her recent landmark UK public project titled ‘Mother Vérité’, unveiled in October 2025, was the first statue to honour postpartum in a city where only 4% of sculptures depict women.
In the summer of 2024, Rayvenn unveiled a monumental multi-million-pound commission – titled ‘Black Renaissance’ – a new and original series of bronze artworks permanently installed at Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, a 17-acre site dedicated to shedding light on the history and resilience of the survivors of transatlantic slavery in the United States.
Rayvenn’s accolades also include being named Forbes 30 Under 30 (2024) for being the youngest, early-career Black female sculptor (under the age of 30) to be commissioned at a high level of funding and scale, and a joint award with Maybrey Precision Casting at the Casting Metals Federation (2024) for the most technically challenging casting component for her work in the US.
Artist, Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark, said: “I am truly honoured to have been selected by National Museums Liverpool and the jury to lead the design and development of this important and exciting project. The project’s focus on co-production as the foundation of the design process directly aligns with my commitment to socially engaged practices, using public art as a tool to extend lived experience and nurture collective cultural memory.
“The International Slavery Museum is a phenomenal museum that gives life and breath to narratives of transatlantic slavery, opening the door to the truth of a hidden history of our enslaved ancestors in ways that are both educational and welcoming for all.
“As a Black British-Caribbean artist, I am emotionally connected to this work. This project draws upon decades of community conversations, visual storytelling, agency, reciprocity and shared authorship, and my role as an ‘active listener’ is to interpret, translate and embed these insights into the vision for the museum.”
Led by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBStudios), the redevelopment of the International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum will sensitively respond to the existing Grade I-listed buildings: Hartley Pavilion and Dr Martin Luther King Jr Building (previously the Dock Traffic Office).
Kossy Nnachetta, Partner, Lead Architect at FCBStudios said: “FCBStudios would like to publicly congratulate Rayvenn for rising to the top of a very competitive field of artists. Her passion for using art to tell collective stories and her commitment to co-production clearly shone through. We are very excited to see the creativity Rayvenn will bring to the process and look forward to working with her on this globally important commission.”
Thr international Slavery Museum is now closed for redevelopment. It is expected to reopen to the public in 2029.