Pro Vice-Chancellor,

We award honorary degrees to exceptional people. In city like Bristol, so full of creativity and culture, art and artists, what makes someone stand out as exceptional?

I think it’s when a person, and their work, is able to inspire and empower others. And, in doing so, change a place for the better.  Someone who helps us all understand  who we are today, how we got here and how, together, we might make a better future.  Michele Curtis personifies this.

She is an artist, illustrator and graphic designer; the founder and director of two vital initiatives:  Iconic Black Bristolians and Iconic Black Britons. You might not have met Michele before, but you almost certainly will have encountered her work. Michele is best known for her distinctive murals of the Seven Saints of St Pauls located along the route of Carnival. These large-scale artworks celebrate the positive impact the African Caribbean community makes in Bristol. The murals might have helped define a locality, but Michele’s impact on the City goes much further…

Michele was born and raised in Bristol in a family of Caribbean descent. She is very much a family person, and it is wonderful to be joined today by her Mum, Dad, sister and her two sons. When Michele left school, being an artist wasn’t considered a viable career option, especially for a woman of colour. It was ten years before Michele could fulfil her creative ambitions. She enrolled on a Graphic Design course, and, everything started from there.

Michele uses art to counter the lack of positive representation and celebrate the contributions of the African Caribbean community in Bristol.  She does this by revealing the stories of people who have made change happen:  heroes like Roy Hackett or Paul Stephenson , whose actions, through the Bristol Bus Boycott, lead to the Race Relations Act. Or Carmen Beckford, Barbara Dettering and others establishing Carnival. Or, more recently,  the impact of Smith & Mighty and the Wild Bunch on the development of the sound system culture and the Bristol music scene.  Michele describes this as ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

I first met Michele when she was researching an idea for a new project. She wanted to delve a little deeper into the archives. As the curator responsible for those archives, I loved Michele’s mantra: ‘be inspired, do the research, then check it, fact check it, then double- check the fact-check’.  Michele was applying archival enquiry and academic rigour to her own artistic vision. Bringing  to light the personal histories of previously unsung heroes. It’s no coincidence that Michele is being awarded her degree today, alongside graduates in Liberal Arts, English and History of Art.  Through a powerful combination of collected memories, word and image, Michele was discovering, saving and sharing stories that might otherwise have been lost. She seemed to effortlessly unite our city’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage; and I’ve remained in awe ever since…

Since her first self-funded exhibition Iconic Black Bristolians in 2014,  the body of work that Michele has created is highly impressive. There have been four exhibitions, including Artival -a partnership with the University where Michele’s work was endorsed by the Jamaican High Commission. Plus, six mural projects resulting in 15 murals, 19 partnership projects including apps and films, and she has received 5 prestigious awards recognising her work. She has even had a classroom named after her at her old school, the Curtis Class at  Fairlawn Primary.

What is exceptional, is that this body of work is down to one person’s vision. One person’s determination to honour others’ contributions – all aimed at bringing about a more unified society. What initially began as a one-off project, has become force for change; a creative and cultural movement that has shifted the balance of cultural capital in our City.

And, Michele has achieved all this whilst suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. Michele constantly seems to be able overcome obstacles, find a solution, open a conversation, make connections, move things on…

Michele believes that Black history is everybody’s history; that it is our local and national history too. All of her work continues to reflect this spirit of openness and inclusivity.

Michele is an artist and a cultural heritage interpreter. She tells important stories, and breaks down barriers. Her work is about acceptance, it is about equality, it is about championing others; it is about our shared histories.

Just like the iconic Black Britons her work celebrates; Michele inspires and empowers us:

And,  just like the heroes in her murals, Michele is also an extraordinary person doing extraordinary things.

Pro Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Michelle Curtis as eminently worthy of the degree of Doctor of Arts, honoris causa.