Celebrated artist Sokari Douglas Camp donates “incredibly powerful and amazing” sculpture to Morley College Art Collection

Morley is excited to announce that celebrated artist Sokari Douglas Camp has generously donated her sculpture, School Run, (1991) to The Morley College Permanent Art Collection.  School Run depicts a mother driving her child to school, a simple yet powerful everyday moment of life.  The large-scale work is made by hand in steel. 

Sokari Douglas Camp is one of Britain’s most prominent artists of the early twenty-first century.  Sokari’s works have been subject to numerous international prizes and exhibitions. Sokari is a long-standing friend of the College who has lived locally to the Waterloo Centre for forty years.

We were delighted to feature her work in Morley Gallery’s 2023 exhibition, Embodied.  School Run was gifted to Morley College London by Sokari, in recognition for its excellence in adult education in the arts, and its reputation for innovative and professional  arts management.

The sculpture was unveiled at a celebratory event on Wednesday at the North Kensington Centre for Skills attended by Sokari Dougas Camp, Craig Hanlon-Smith, Centre Principal at the North Kensington Centre, and Ralph Moran,  Acting CEO and Principal of Morley College London.   

Curator and Gallery Manager Jack Davy said:

“Sokari is one of the most important contemporary British artists. And I think this work is incredibly powerful, evocative, and an amazing piece of art.  I this is the most important addition to the Morley College Permanent Art Collection since the Bridget Riley’s mural was acquired in 1973.

I think this is an extraordinary work of art. I’m also very excited to have it here at the North Kensington Centre. where I think it fits very well with our student body and with the ambitions and aims and ethos of this space…. This is an incredibly generous gift. So I want to say huge, thank you to you, Sokari, for all of your work with the college over the years, and particularly for this, it’s incredibly generous, incredibly thoughtful, and matches us so well.”

In her remarks artist Sokari Douglas Camp explained how the sculpture School Run came about:

“Back in the 1980’s we had a series of famines in Africa that were terrible around about that time in the late 80s – with Band Aid and all of that….we had kind of established that Africa was this vision of starving children and flies. So I thought I had to correct that [portrayal] somehow, and I decided to make School Run because my girlfriends, like myself in London, my girlfriends in Nigeria was taking their children to school, and this was our new experience, you know, looking after our young children.

I made School Run and it was possible and I wanted to emphasise that asking women can drive and, you know, the child at the back doesn’t have a seatbelt because that wasn’t the thing at the time. I think that’s quite important. to remember, that we had occasions where health and safety didn’t guard us so much, you know…  so all of that conversation, I think, is quite important for the students to know about, just because it’s a little bit of history….The fact that you know, it’s a black woman is conversation in itself because there aren’t many portraits of us, and the abstraction that’s done with the piece is also something a feature that could be spoken about and added to your courses…. So I’m hoping that this sculpture adds to the artistic quest in this building and in other buildings, in Morley, just because that’s what I feel I’m here for. This is a conversation.”

The sculpture enhances the college’s artistic environment, creating an inspiring space for both students and the local community. The work is on display to the public in the reception area at the North Kensington Centre for Skills, Wornington Road, W10.  We look forward to welcoming you to experience School Run in person!