Pilgrim Porch - Installation May 2022

The unbelievable task of installing the Pilgrim Porch in Chester Cathedral by our good friends CB Arts.

The porch sits significantly yet subtly in this incredible space. The materiality and imagery compliments the fabric of the Cathedral - allowing a new dialogue. A sense of it always being there was expressed by visitors.

Finished photos to follow. Visit Project Page for more information about the process.

The ceremonial doors were installed in time for the Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations on June 3rd 2022 with a service of Thanksgiving in the Cathedral on the 2nd June. The full refurbishment of the setting is not yet complete with Jerusalem stone flooring and forged handrails to follow. However the Pilgrim’s porch was admired by people inside and outside the Cathedral.

Photo by Donald Insall

“An innovative new architectural feature which champions accessibility and heritage has been installed at Chester Cathedral’s West Doors.

The Pilgrim Porch has been designed by the renowned sculptor, Stephen Broadbent. It comprises a shell-like patinated cast bronze arch set behind the medieval timber doors of the Cathedral’s Perpendicular Gothic West front.

Donald Insall Associates is proud to have initiated the design and implementation of the installation to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The bronze arch, hung with a pair of large and heavy laminated glass doors, is patterned with a labyrinth design composed of images of every church in the diocese of Chester. A digital installation in the cathedral will allow visitors to find out about all the churches represented in Stephen Broadbent’s labyrinth.”

— The Standard

https://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/20190281.stunning-new-entrance-completed-chester-cathedral/

Arthur Dooley - Splitting the Atom

Restoring Splitting the Atom - Arthur Dooley’s sculpture at Daresbury Laboratory @scitechdaresbury from 1970. A piece close to our hearts. We still believe there is a magic relationship between art & science.

Read full blog about the piece and its scientific links from UKRI - UK research & Innovation;

https://www.ukri.org/blog/bringing-scientific-sculpture-back-to-life/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Orlo&utm_content=STFC+-+Daresbury+Lab+content.

Artist Arthur Dooley (in the hat in the background) with a TV documentary crew at Daresbury Laboratory in the 1970s. Pictured in the foreground in white shoes is artist Stephen Broadbent who has worked on the sculpture restoration. Credit: STFC

View fullsize

Captured by Paul Aden

“Art is a powerful tool for us to bring science to a wider audience, so it is important that the Arthur Dooley sculpture is here for many more years.

The work that Stephen and his team have done has brought it back to life, ensuring that staff and visitors can enjoy it fully now and I am delighted with Stephen’s support and contribution.

It seems especially fitting as it is Daresbury Laboratory’s 60th year, so the restoration is part of that story now as well.”

— Stu Buxton, STFC Regional Head of Estates and Facilities (North)

View fullsize

View fullsize

Imagery created for the vision document for the Linear Light Gardens proposal - highlighting this Dooley piece was a central conceptual catalyst for the artworks at Daresbury.

https://broadbent.studio/daresbury

The creation of a linear park, with a pathway that leads you through a story of science crafted in glass, stone and steel and integrated into a shaped landscape. It is a ‘pathway of progress’ as you walk out from the heart of the science park with five feature gardens. It is a welcoming ‘gateway into wonderland’ when you arrive at the park.

City Fields - Wakefield - Concept document

Artist Statement

We are an art and design studio that has demonstrated the role art plays as part of the built environment, and how it works with the rest of its surroundings to create a sense of place, which is the challenge faced by City Fields, as this new community starts to inhabit this former industrial area. 

This is nothing new, as throughout history, wherever people have chosen to build a settlement, they have also crafted something of their own lives, their story or aspiration - a narrative perhaps fashioned in stone, metal and glass or acted out in the market or harbour place. 

We always feel privileged to be invited into places built over generations, to help rediscover or re-invent something of their collective story. The City Fields story may feel it is just starting but of course it builds on an older narrative, that reveals the patterns and routines of people’s lives and presents a unique natural environment built by it. 

Following initial research we have seen something that particularly stands out in our minds and prompts us to explore further. This is how the ecology of the area has adapted to this industrial landscape, inhabiting man-made green corridors such as the railway and canal, and the watercourses created by collapsed mines. 

We are particularly intrigued by the concept of green corridors, and would be keen to explore how this could be expressed visually. 

Green corridors are a meeting point for diverse groups of flora and fauna, whether they are corridor dwellers or passage users. They are vital refuges for biodiversity in the urban landscape and also important spaces for our own recreation and wellbeing, including our education in ecology. 

Making the commission

After the development stage, the City Fields animals where fabricated in Ulverston at CB Arts and currently waiting to be installed after a series of delays. We cannot wait to see the colourful animals within this post industrial landscape. Look out for installation soon.

Stephen Broadbent and Chris Brammall at CB Arts looking at the City Fields piece in their workshop.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The Apothecary's Garden - The things of this world

Proposal for the UCLH Garden

clay models of the animals

CONCEPT

To undergo Proton Beam Therapy is to leave for a moment the familiar world.  The patient enters a hi-tech environment so alien to their everyday experience they might as well be an astronaut on a mission to Mars.

Afterwards, it is as though they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and have to reacquaint themselves with the things of this world.  In this somewhat shell-shocked spirit they find the Apothecary’s Garden.

The Apothecary’s Garden is a place of healing.  It is a haven of peace after Proton Beam Therapy and it contains plants from which to make medicine.  But its greatest potential to heal lies in the fact it is a garden.  A garden in which there are things like plants to help the patient remember the world they know.

We would like to build on this idea and bring a little more of the natural world around us into this place.  Plants belong with animals, and we have in mind a series of animal sculptures carved in stone and set into the wall of each planter.  We hope, through the familiarity of our chosen animals and a softness in the design of our sculptures, to enhance the soothing and therapeutic effect of the Apothecary’s Garden.

We would love to develop a series of hand hold pieces - celebrating the tactile nature of these sleeping animals.

More information about how this project developed to follow.

Moving Bradford Pit Memorial long awaited unveiling

On 5th September 2021 the Bradford Pit Memorial had a significant community unveiling.

Go to Project page

The memorial will continue to have a community focus - as the piece will hopefully become that signpost to the wider project, linking to aural histories and the legacy of the miners, and mining community. Broadbent Studio has felt privileged to be on this journey with Lauren and the miners group in realising their vision for a physical memorial.

For community involvement see the facebook group and website.

https://www.facebook.com/bradfordpitmemorial

https://bradfordpit.com/

The Eudaemonium hidden bookcase

The Eudaemonium project would also like your input - for more information see the project page.

View fullsize

View fullsize

WHAT IS THE EUDAEMONIUM?

A living sculptural book that grows as people contribute to it.

The Eudaemonium stands in the square as a symbol of a community’s hidden treasure and acts as a physical marker within the landscape to encourage people to collect and share routes to well-being with one-another.

There is a hidden locked bookcase built within the spine of the sculpture, which houses the compendium of recipes and remedies or routes to well-being.