{"id":557688,"date":"2026-07-19T16:06:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557688\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:06:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:06:43","slug":"maid-marian-statue-unveiled-in-nottingham-city-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557688\/","title":{"rendered":"Maid Marian statue unveiled in Nottingham City Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nottingham\u2019s newest public artwork\u00a0\u2013\u00a0located\u00a0outside East West Nottingham at Tollhouse Hill\/ Upper Parliament\u00a0Street \u2013\u00a0celebrates Maid Marian, a legendary figure from Nottinghamshire folklore, often associated with community, resistance, and care for the natural world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Artist Alicja Bia\u0142a says that Marian is reimagined through native plants, stories, and the people of Nottinghamshire. Plants used to create the sculpture include Nottingham catchfly, English oak, silver birch, hawthorn, bluebell and common nettle, species connected to the ecology and folklore of Nottinghamshire woodlands.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rushcliffe.gov.uk\/homealarms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Home-Alarms-Wire-Banner.png\"\/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rexgooding.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-wire-rex-gooding-19th-nov.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maid Marian\u00a0stands on\u00a0a sandstone boulder plinth, symbolising\u00a0roots to\u00a0Nottingham\u2019s history, ecology, and communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-314957\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WFP9866-1314x2048-1.jpg\" alt=\"WFP9866 1314x2048 1\" width=\"1314\" height=\"2048\" title=\"Maid Marian statue unveiled in Nottingham City Centre\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>More than 700 people from local groups \u2013 including Sutherland House School and Nottingham Women\u2019s Centre \u2013 took part in hands-on workshops led by\u00a0Alicja Bia\u0142a,\u00a0exploring medieval making traditions and inviting new interpretations of historical forms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Their physical creations \u2013 wax moulds of local flora sourced from Nottinghamshire\u2019s\u00a0landscape \u2013 were cast into bronze to be used on the Maid Marian sculpture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-314972\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-18-at-19.01.48.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot 2026 07 18 at 19.01.48\" width=\"1576\" height=\"1056\" title=\"Maid Marian statue unveiled in Nottingham City Centre\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.specsavers.co.uk\/stores\/westbridgford?utm_source=westbridgford_wire&amp;utm_campaign=westbridgfordwire_local&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_content=baa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-1.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Launching on Friday 17 July at BACKLIT gallery is a new exhibition \u2018OUR MARIAN\u2019 also celebrating Nottingham\u2019s overlooked female folklore figure. Located just behind Sneinton Market, the exhibition brings together newly commissioned works across sculpture, film, textile and fashion, alongside extensive community input that reframes the legendary figure through a contemporary lens.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-314971\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-18-at-19.01.56.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot 2026 07 18 at 19.01.56\" width=\"686\" height=\"1050\" title=\"Maid Marian statue unveiled in Nottingham City Centre\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The free exhibition will run from 18 July to 8 August 2026. Opening times Thursday to Saturday, 12-4pm. Location: Main Gallery (Second Floor), BACKLIT, Alfred House, Ashley Street, Nottingham, NG3 1JG. Step-free and lift access is available via Alfred Street.\u00a0To find out more, visit\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/backlit.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/backlit.org.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nottingham\u2019s newest public artwork\u00a0\u2013\u00a0located\u00a0outside East West Nottingham at Tollhouse Hill\/ Upper Parliament\u00a0Street \u2013\u00a0celebrates Maid Marian, a legendary figure&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-557688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}