LIVERPOOL.- National Museums Liverpool announced 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 and gained planning permission 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 going 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 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 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.

International Slavery Museum is now closed for redevelopment. It is expected to reopen to the public in 2029.

Rayvenn Shaleigha D'Clark MA FHEA MRSS is a Black British-Caribbean digital sculptor, writer and researcher with an internationally recognised practice.

Her work has been praised and acquired by international private collectors, and she has showcased her work in prestigious institutions such as the Carl Freedman Gallery, Gucci Circolo Shoreditch, Mall Galleries, Royal College of Arts, Victoria & Albert Museum, Saatchi Gallery and The Serpentine. A frequent public speaker and media commentator, Rayvenn has appeared on platforms including Apollo Magazine, The Crafts Council, Marie Claire UK, The Female Lead, BBC Live and CNN. Through these engagements, she continues to champion equity in the arts and the importance of investment in emerging creative talent.

Her innovative practice bridges the gap between tradition and technology, blending digital and artisanal techniques to create technology-driven sculptures in digital environments. These sculptures depict complex representations of black anatomy and identity in both speculative and historical contexts. Her practice interrogates the complexities of race, representation, and digital hybridity within contemporary art.

Rayvenn uses her voice to empower communities of colour through visual storytelling, addressing contentious topics like transatlantic slavery, inequality, and equity through anti-violence motifs, maintaining a strong global and UK audience. Aware that monuments and public sculptures often overlook communities of colour, D’Clark wants to celebrate her anonymous peers, commemorating hidden figures in the public realm, particularly in cities that are embracing monuments of people of colour.

Rayvenn’s work in the public realm includes Black Renaissance (2023-24), a series of monumental bronze sculptures permanently installed at The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park in Montogomery, Alabama with press coverage in outlets such as CBS, Bloomberg, LA Times, The Independent, Rolling Stones, Harper’s Bazaar, and The New Yorker; Mother Vérité (2025) a landmark public project in the UK, unveiling the first statue to honour the postpartum, commissioned by leading US maternity brand Frida and underpinned by research led by Marine Tanguy, Founder and CEO of MTArt Agency. The project has been featured in notable global press, including British Vogue, CNN, Hypebae, Harper’s Bazaar, The Standard, Stylist and The Guilty Feminist; Echoes of Passage (2026), an upcoming commission in Croydon, SE London, which marks Croydon’s evolution into a thriving and vibrant cultural hub shaped by migration. Rayvenn is the founder of Sculptural Drawings Ltd., a creative studio which has secured over 2 million for public projects in the UK & US.

The artist is represented by the talent agency MTArt Agency.