Tuesday 8 March 2022 marks the 110th celebration of International Women’s Day, created to raise awareness of the position of women and with the intention of elevating females in every field of life.

An area still very much in need of improvement is statues. There are currently less than 160 statues of females in the United Kingdom, remove those of royalty and the number drops, remove mythical female statues, and the number drops again.

In August 2020, a new statue by Thomas J. Price titled Reaching Out was unveiled in Newham to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the free public outdoor art trail called The Line.

Reaching Out is a nine-feet, silicon bronze statue of an anonymous, fictional, Black British female dressed in casual wear, looking at her mobile phone. She is one of just four black female statues in London, the others being Mary Seacole, The Bronze Woman, and Manche Masemola.

Statues have been a hot topic in the media lately, with calls for greater levels of diversity and demands for more named females to be honoured in this fashion. Campaigners have highlighted statues with colonial links and some statues have been removed to end the tradition of honouring those with these past links.

Reaching Out sits in Three Mills Park so is in the perfect location for families to visit, play, relax, and take in the beautiful and rare art piece. Let’s hope that female statues will become more common in the years ahead.

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