Hear Now, 2023. UCL East. Permanent. 2023.  
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Commissioned by UCL Public Art. Delivered with Setworks Ltd and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.

In 2023, Emma Hart completed Hear Now!, a permanent public artwork for the main entrance of UCL East in Stratford. The work is a large-scale frieze of megaphones and frying pans that gives a direct visual shout-out to the working-class women of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS).  Founded in 1914, the ELFS campaigned to improve living conditions and to secure the vote for all women. After 1918, only women over 30 with property could vote; working-class women remained excluded until 1928. Through research, Hart identified the UCL East site as a former ELFS meeting place. This history shaped the work: frying pans are set down, megaphones are picked up. Domestic labour becomes public address.

The commission was an open brief. Rather than functioning as decoration, the work anchors the building to its social history. It marks arrival, asserts presence, and gives the entrance a clear identity.  Hart consulted staff and students throughout development, building a sense of ownership from the outset. The work treats the site as archaeological, bringing suppressed working-class female voices back to the surface. It does not lecture history. The megaphones address passers-by directly, incorporating the viewer and generating an experience of being seen and included.