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Schoolchildren use artwork to speak out against knife crime
“We want to feel safe.” “I see humans, but no humanity.” “Save your life – it’s worth living for.”
These are just a handful of the powerful messages stitched and scribbled across more than a hundred school uniforms, set to go on display at the Lord Mayor’s Chapel on Monday.
Each shirt is part of Empty Shirts, Lost Childhoods, a one-day free public exhibition to mark the start of Knife Crime Awareness Week.
is needed now More than ever
Children and young people aged 13 to 25 from across the city were invited to decorate plain white school shirts with messages, poems and memorials.
The project was supported by local schools, youth organisations and charities including Barnardo’s and YouthMoves.
A creative response to serious violence
Dr Jade Levell is a Senior Lecturer in Social and Public Policy at the University of Bristol – photo: Jade Levell
The University of Bristol’s Dr Jade Levell led the project.
“Since July last year, a team at University of Bristol have been working with the Serious Violence Prevention Board at Bristol City Council,” Dr Levell told Bristol24/7.
She added: “They asked us to gather youth voice on the issue of serious violence in Bristol.”
The exhibition was inspired by the global Clothesline Project, founded in 1990 and originally used to raise awareness of domestic and sexual violence.
“We thought we’d adapt that model and see if it works to ask young people around serious violence,” said Dr Levell.
Craftivism and lost childhoods
Rather than framing the focus on weapons or perpetrators, the exhibition centres on the theme of childhood itself – and the absence of young people from key stages of life.
“Young people write on each other’s shirts when they leave school – it’s a kind of rite of passage,” Dr Levell explained.
Dr Jade Levell is a Senior Lecturer in Social and Public Policy at the University of Bristol – photo: Jade Levell
Dr Levell added: “We wanted to focus the conversation on childhood rather than who’s doing what to who.”
She described the approach as craftivism:
“We were trying to think creatively so that… we’re not just asking them to sit in a traditional interview, but how can we get them excited so that they want to talk to us and be part of it?”
Emotional impact and youth expression
The result was an emotional outpouring.
Not just about knife crime but also domestic abuse, mental health and toxic masculinity.
“One young person talked about the fact that they felt they were making this shirt for those people who couldn’t,” said Dr Levell.
Dr Levell said the children “were sending messages of hope” – photo: University of Bristol
“The shirts revealed that children and young people view serious violence as much broader than knife crime,” Dr Levell added.
“Sometimes as adults, we think it’s all about knife crime – but they’re actually experiencing multiple challenges that impact them around their sense of fear and safety.
“One thing that was quite strong is that young people shared positive messages. They were sending messages of hope… building aspirations to each other, which I think is important for us to harness in this conversation.”
The location choice
The Lord Mayor’s Chapel on College Green was an intentional choice of location for the exhibition:
“We felt it was important for the first exhibition to be somewhere central so that it felt inclusive… but also, it’s something about bringing truth to power,” said Dr Levell.
Dr Levell said: “We wanted to bring these young people’s voices to the people in power in the city so that they will hear and be confronted with what young people have to say.”
The Lord Mayor’s Chapel is the sole remaining building of the 13th century Hospital of St Mark, founded by St Augustine’s Abbey, the forerunner of Bristol Cathedral – photo: Barbara Evripidou
A catalyst for action
Visitors are also invited to leave their own reflections, set to be compiled into a ‘community manifesto’ to be presented to Bristol City Council and its Serious Violence Partnership Board.
“We are hoping that this will be a different mechanism to be able to gather [public sentiment] and to use it to create change,” Dr Levell said. “We are not in a position to make those changes, but we can certainly amplify what’s being said – and also ground it in research.”
What’s next?
Dr Levell concluded: “We have had conversations with community organisations about this becoming a community project.
“If it became an annual event and the community wanted to take it on, then we’d be more than happy.”
Empty Shirts, Lost Childhoods will open to the public at the Lord Mayor’s Chapel on College Green from 11am to 5pm on Monday.
Main photo: University of Bristol
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