Rosie Galloway Smith

Commissioned Artist: ‘My Artful Way’

Rosie Galloway-Smith is a contemporary mixed media visual artist and is one of the four artists who have been selected for the ‘My Artful Way’ commission.

Rosie’s work took its inspiration from her wish to discover more about the industrial textile industry of Carlisle, with a particular focus on Dixon’s Mill at Shaddongate, where in the nineteenth century, cloth was made for enslaved people to wear, during the nineteenth century. These links to the Slave Trade are not widely recognised.

Rosie’s walk followed the defunct canal route from Carlisle to Port Carlisle, from where cloth made at Dixon’s Mill would be shipped to America to be worn by enslaved people on the plantations.

To find out more about Rosie’s finished piece, ‘Tangled Threads’, and the process behind her work, please follow the links below.

CONTENT WARNING: Please note that elements of this art piece and the stories that it refers to may be upsetting or triggering. The content on the following pages includes themes of trauma, Carlisle’s connection to the exploitation of enslaved people, and suicide.

A painting by William Henry Nutter (1821-1872) showing Denton Mill and Dixon's Chimney in Carlisle. The colours are brick-brown, with a mill wheel in the foreground, and a tall mill building with a very tall, narrow chimney with smoke coming out of it.

‘Slave Cloth’ –
with history held in mind

Slave Cloth – a walk with history in mind

A photograph of an artpiece created by Rosie Galloway Smith, called Tangled Threads. The image shows small replicas of 19th century clothes for enslaved people, made from striped gingham cloth and affixed to tangled threads.

Tangled Threads

Tangled Threads