BACKLIT gives Nottingham a new Maid Marian and opens its new ground floor

It has been a landmark year for BACKLIT, the contemporary arts charity based at Alfred House on Ashley Street. In summer 2026 it helped give Nottingham a brand new public sculpture, and on Friday 6 November it celebrates the opening of its newly developed ground floor.

The sculpture, Our Marian, was created by Polish artist Alicja Biała through a partnership between BACKLIT and Nottingham City Council. Rather than a realistic figure, it is a 2.3 metre silhouette of Maid Marian formed from cast bronze foliage of native plants, including English oak, silver birch, hawthorn and bluebell, set on a sandstone boulder. Biała gave her an elaborate headpiece as a nod to the May Day traditions linked with Marian.

Local people helped shape it. More than a hundred local people were invited to workshops at BACKLIT, bringing foliage from plants around Nottingham, some from their own gardens, which became wax moulds cast in bronze by the lost wax technique. "I wanted young girls to look at it and think, 'This represents me in so many ways,'" Biała told LeftLion. The sculpture now stands permanently near Tollhouse Hill and Upper Parliament Street.

BACKLIT director Suzanne Golden said Maid Marian's "courageous and rebellious spirit has never faded and still reflects the strength and character of Nottingham today."

The grand opening on 6 November, from 6pm to 9pm, unveils a new gallery, a public archive, a dedicated learning space, a quiet room and the Kanvas café-bar, along with new accessible toilets on all floors. The redevelopment was shaped by consultation with local communities, artists and disabled people's organisations.

The first show in the new gallery, Lands of Uncertain Shape, brings together the imagined worlds of BACKLIT members Xin Chen and T'kya Xavier across ceramics, painting, textiles, film and performance. Artists across the building will open their studio doors, and the youth collective Pending will lead a drop-in workshop.

BACKLIT describes itself as the largest artist studio hub in the East Midlands, and with its free public programme it is a place where Nottingham can see art being made as well as shown.

Details of the grand opening and current exhibitions are on the BACKLIT website.