CCS – A statue for a forgotten writer
Why this story
I kept thinking about what it means to walk through Canterbury as a woman who writes and know Marlowe and Dickens, but not Behn. She was one of the first women to express herself publicly, and yet her name had faded. Using social media felt right because it echoed the kind of public broadcast Aphra herself had lived through.
As I started to research her, I found portraits, fragments of stories and traces of her life. It felt strange and proud to realise she was so close to me as a Canterbury visitor. From there, I began to look for stories that could sit alongside the images – first about Aphra, then about the sculptors and their lives beyond the maquettes – so the campaign could feel like a real art community, not just a vote.
How I approached the Aphra Behn Sculpture Project | Sociaroma
I helped bring Aphra Behn’s story to a wider audience through digital PR, storytelling and the promotion of four shortlisted maquettes. My role was to keep her at the centre of the campaign, while giving people different ways in – through images, posts, and small pieces of narrative they could share and respond to.
Artists’ Voices
Profiles on the sculpturers and techniques
Giving a historic legacy back to the hands of the city by capturing the raw studio processes, the clay textures, and the local hands shaping history.
READ THE STORY
READ THE STORY
The Nominees
US-based PR campaign introducing the final shortlist
Discover how a US-based nominee connected global audiences to a local legacy, uniting creative voices through narrative to honour a visionary female writer who paved the way for us all.
What this taught me
I noticed that a story can be important and still remain overlooked until someone finds a fresh way to make people look again. I taught myself that I can connect literature, art and communication to give a story a new life. I don't have to be the artist or the original author to make a meaningful contribution; I can help people discover why the work matters.
A deeper lesson for me was realising that my strength lies in making connections — between an idea and an audience, between the past and the present, and between words and the world beyond the page.
This project reminded me that a story can outlive its author – but it needs people who are willing to bring it into the world again. The Aphra Behn campaign took a woman whose contribution to literature had been overlooked and gave her a new presence through sculpture, public art and storytelling.