Jacky Oliver, a metalworker and artist in residence at the Mills Archive Trust, was inspired by local primary school workshops run by herself, Jelly and the Mills Archive Trust, as well as the records of the Trust. She funnelled this inspiration into creativity, and as a result designed, made and donated this sculpture to our archive.
This piece is named after the project that inspired it: Reading EmPOWERed, an initiative funded (along with her artist residency at the Trust) by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to lottery players.
You can see the below technical drawings and blueprints in her work: these are some of the records she drew inspiration from. Look at the different elements of the sculpture to see various structures from the history of renewable energy come alive, from mills to turbines.
Click on each blueprint in the section below to go to a bigger version. For more on why the bottom three blueprints are particularly significant in the history of renewable energy, head to this link (a short biography of their creator).
