Black Mary Project
"The Black Mary Project is a wonderfully imaginative intervention into remembering lost histories through community activities and creating new mythologies. The Black Mary statue itself is a gorgeous work of art - beautiful, strong, grounded and emanating a palpable healing energy. It is a necessary and powerful addition to London’s public statues and shifts the gaze onto a previously marginalised historical figure."
Bernardine Evaristo
Black Mary Project is a major community-engaged project produced in close collaboration with Calthorpe Community Garden in Kings Cross, London. Between 2022 and 2025, Gaylene and a team of artist collaborators led three years of community engagement to reimagine a contemporary healing well inspired by the story of a 17th century Black well keeper called Mary Woolaston.
Funded by Arts Council England, Mayor of London, Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm and others, a new permanent public artwork by sculptor Marcia Bennett Male was commissioned that made the Guardian’s Best Design List for 2025. Artists and the community also co-curated two live art events - a major one-day festival, the Black Mary Pleasure Garden and the Black Mary Healing Tour. Gaylene made a special textile artwork which featured in Thirst, the Wellcome Collection’s summer exhibition which reached over 100, 000 visitors. Associated Black Mary products were also available in Wellcome’s shop. The Black Mary Project engaged 1696 participants and reached over 3000 audience members.
"Really, really beautiful. Such a striking sculpture"
“When my 7 year old saw Mary he automatically bowed! She's got power!"
Mary's home
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On Saturday June 28th, an embracing community gathered at Calthorpe Community Garden for the unveiling of the new Mary Woolaston statue.
At 2.30pm Marcia Bennett-Male’s Mary Woolaston statue was finally unveiled. Standing at 160cm tall and hand carved from St Bees sandstone by the UK’s only classically trained Black woman stone carver, Mary adds an arresting, restful presence to the gardens.
Musicians Las Witchas! led the large crowd in song in a procession down into the garden. The statue was cloaked in a bespoke textile created by Gaylene from symbols gathered from the local community. Cllr Sandra Francis, Camden Council’s Cabinet Member for Jobs, Young People and Culture, and Annika Miller-Jones, founder of Calthorpe, unveiled Mary and the statue was greeted with cheers, claps and song.
You can now visit the Mary Woolaston sculpture between 10-6pm Monday to Saturday at Calthorpe Community Garden. Why not offer a silent thank you to one of your own well keepers or caregivers while you’re there.
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Black Mary's Pleasure Garden
Black Mary’s Pleasure Garden followed the unveiling. 768 people participated in a special art garden party for all the family which connected people and celebrated community. The event led by over 20 artists, gardeners, and facilitators featured workshops, games, performances and rituals that drew people together and offered joyful, well-being activities..
Says Lead Artist Gaylene Gould: “We hoped to create a new environment for people of all ages, ethnicities, and abilities to connect in ways that are not normally possible in public space. Black Mary’s Pleasure Garden proved that it is possible and precisely what many of us need. I hope we take this spirit of generosity back out into a world that desperately needs healing.”
"Such a beautifully curated event filled with love. Community and connection at its best with Mary standing proud at the heart of it all"
“An outstanding, inspiring and engaging public history event. A joyous and beautifully designed celebration that shared the fruits of several years of sustained research and creative engagement with the local community.”
“Hope in a time of despair, community in a time of fear. Thank you!”
Mary Woolaston Dreams
“Water wells were once located at the centre of the community, the place from which the community drew their resource. Wells also symbolised the subconscious mind and the unexplored psyche. In dreams, the state of the water is a signal to our emotional states.”
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In a new textile artwork, artist Gaylene Gould envisages Woolaston’s interior dreamworld, weaving symbols and stories about water from members of Calthorpe Community Garden together with images depicting Woolaston’s imagined past, present and future.
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The digital collage on velvet is a curtain for Woolaston’s house, intentionally bringing glamour into the domestic life of a working woman. The night sky background includes stars and heart shapes used on beauty patches popular in the 1600s. Branches connect the artwork back to the garden.
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The artwork was exhibited in the Wellcome Collection's Thirst exhibition July 2025 - February 2026
Press
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Westminster Extra
EC1 Echo
The Organ
BBC Radio London
The Voice
The Londonist
Thank you
