Artist call for International Slavery Museum’s new public entrance

5 November 2025

Opportunity to have a major role in creating powerful artistic legacy on Liverpool’s historic waterfront.

National Museums Liverpool are seeking a UK based artist (or collective) to co-design the cast iron panels of International Slavery Museum’s monumental new Entrance Pavilion.

Opened in 2007 on the third floor of the Maritime Museum, International Slavery Museum has never had its own front door. The new Entrance Pavilion, which gained planning permission in October 2024, will announce International Slavery Museum to the world, asserting its rightful place and prominence on Liverpool’s historic waterfront.

The newly designed panels will be the visible ‘skin’ of the Entrance Pavilion, 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 chosen artist will work collaboratively with International Slavery Museum staff, architects, structural engineers, fabricators, and community partners to reflect the histories, legacies, and lived experiences represented at the museum.

This is a once in lifetime opportunity for an artist to play an integral role in creating a permanent and powerful public artwork, that sits at the heart of the museum’s wider transformation.

UK based artists from the Global Majority or with lived experience of the legacies of slavery are encouraged to apply.

Artist fee: £30,000 (plus additional expenses)

Full brief for artists and more information is available here.

Deadline 17th November 2025