The Royal Mint has announced that it is one of the sponsors of a ‘ewe-nique’ art trail taking place across London to raise money for UK children’s hospitals.
For the next eight weeks only, a flock of 50 five-foot-tall sculptures of Shaun the Sheep will be trotting the streets of London for the ‘Shaun in the City’ art trail – including one very special ‘Shaun’ created by The Royal Mint.
High-profile artists, designers and celebrities have designed and decorated the colourful sculptures, which will stand at iconic landmarks, attractions and locations throughout the capital–including Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Carnaby Street, St Paul’s Cathedral, and The View from the Shard.
The Royal Mint’s sponsored sculpture, ‘Shaun-xiào’, is located at a very fitting location – The Tower of London, where the mint once resided for more than 500 years from the late thirteenth century until 1812.
The ‘Shaun in the City’ trail will run across London from 28 March to 25 May followed by a second trail across Bristol (featuring 70 different Shaun sculptures) from 6 July to 31 August.
Following both trails, all 120 ‘Shauns’ will be sold off at a public auction in October. The money raised will go towards the Wallace & Gromit Children’s Foundation, which supports sick children in hospitals throughout the UK.
The Royal Mint took part in the Wallace & Gromit Children’s Foundation ‘Gromit Unleashed’ trail across Bristol in 2013, which raised over £2.3 million for Bristol Children’s Hospital, and the organisation’s ‘National Treasure’ sculpture will be displayed in the new Royal Mint Visitor Centre, which opens in spring 2016.
The Royal Mint’s Director of Commemorative Coin and Medals, Shane Bissett, said:
“We were offered the fantastic opportunity to take part in another ‘Aardman Adventure’ and jumped at the chance to show our support for such a worthy cause. In 2014 The Royal Mint struck the United Kingdom’s first Chinese Lunar Calendar coins for the Year of The Horse beginning a new series, the Shēngxiào Collection, named [in honor of] the Chinese zodiac. The series continues in 2015 with gold and silver coins struck for the Year of the Sheep, and we wanted to transform Shaun into the star of our Shēngxiào Collection to celebrate his special year and Chinese Lunar New Year.
“‘Shaun-xiào’ has been created by one of The Royal Mint’s own in-house design team, Stephen Taylor, and features elements of our Lunar Year of the Sheep design, including the Chinese symbol for ‘Sheep’, a large coin ruff around Shaun’s neck and red fleece to symbolise the gift envelopes [that] are exchanged at Lunar New Year. I hope that he enjoys his trip to Tower of London, and that visitors enjoy meeting him!”
Director of Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation, Nicola Masters said:
“The ‘Gromit Unleashed’ trail was an incredible success, raising £2.3million for the charity at auction and attracting more than 1.2 million visitors to Bristol, which contributed over £123 million to the local economy. Following this, we wanted to bring our next project to both London and Bristol, so that even more people could get involved and enjoy our fantastic flock of sculptures. We’d like to thank The Royal Mint and the rest of our sponsors for helping us to make the trail happen, and bringing Shaun to the big city!”
Creator of Shaun the Sheep, Nick Park CBE said:
“It’s been a busy year for Shaun, he has just launched his first movie and now he has his very own arts trail! Shaun is such a well-loved character with so many fans around the globe, I am sure many will flock to London to be part of the fun.”
Have you been to see Shaun-xiào at The Tower of London? If so, share your pictures at facebook.com/theroyalmint or at Twitter.com/royalmintuk using the hashtag #Shaunxiao
Shaun in the City is a public arts trail from Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation, the team behind the award-winning Gromit Unleashed trail in 2013.
120 5ft sculptures of Shaun the Sheep will be designed and decorated by famous artists, designers and celebrities, of which 50 will placed in iconic locations in London (28 March – 25 May 2015) and 70 will be placed in Bristol (6 July – 31 August 2015). The trail will culminate in a public exhibition and charity auction in autumn 2015.
For more information, visit www.shauninthecity.org.uk Find Shaun on Facebook: www.facebook.com/shaunsinthecity Follow @shaun_inthecity on Twitter #ShaunintheCity
The Charity
Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation is the group charity (no. 1043603) raising funds for sick children in Bristol Children’s Hospital and hospitals throughout the UK. Since 1995, the multi award winning charity has enjoyed a unique relationship with Aardman Animations, whose Oscar-winning characters Wallace & Gromit spearhead the fundraising. The founding Directors of Aardman Animations, David Sproxton and Peter Lord, as well as the Creator of Wallace & Gromit, Nick Park, are Trustees of the Charity.
Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation has two major fundraising initiatives supporting sick children in hospital:
- Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Charity is a national charity raising funds to support and improve the lives of children in hospitals and hospices throughout the UK. The Charity supports a network of children’s hospitals and hospices in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, granting funding for projects that provide comforts and facilities for patients including state of the art equipment, family accommodation, art, music and play therapy as well as direct costs for hospice care, respite care and sensory equipment.
- Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Charity will benefit from funds raised from the flock of 50 sculptures placed in London during spring 2015. For more information, visit www.wallaceandgromitcharity.org
The Grand Appeal has raised over £28 million to support sick babies and children at Bristol Children’s Hospital and the Special Care Baby Unit at St Michael’s Hospital providing life-saving equipment, patient activities, new services and family accommodation. The Appeal runs Cots for Tots House – a 12-bedded family accommodation unit for the parents of critically-ill babies treated in the Special Care Baby Unit.
Bristol Children’s Hospital is one of the UK’s leading children’s hospitals treating patients from across the South West, South Wales and beyond with life-threatening illnesses and serves as the paediatric intensive care centre for the whole South West region. The hospital is an international, national and regional specialist centre of excellence for a range of services including neurosurgery, burns, cardiac, leukaemia and bone marrow transplants.
Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal will benefit from funds raised from the flock of 70 Shaun in the City sculptures placed in Bristol during summer 2015. For more information, visit www.grandappeal.org.uk
Gromit Unleashed 2013
A major public arts trail organised by Bristol Children’s Hospital Charity, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal, and Aardman Animations. The trail saw 80 giant sculptures of Gromit displayed in Bristol and the area during the summer of 2013, each individually decorated by artists and celebrities. The award-winning campaign continues to raise funds through exclusive Gromit Unleashed charity merchandise, to support Bristol Children’s Hospital.
• Gromit Unleashed arts trail contributed a record breaking £123 million to the local economy
• 1.2 million visitors took part in the trail
• £2.3million raised from the auction for Bristol Children’s Hospital
• 1.7 million hits on the Gromit Unleashed website
• 45,000 downloads of the Gromit Unleashed app which reached No. 1 in the iTunes App chart
• To date, Gromit Unleashed has helped to raise over £4.5 million for Bristol Children’s Hospital
Aardman Animations & Shaun the Sheep
Aardman Animations is an award-winning British animation studio that has an outstanding global reputation for creating enduringly popular characters and quality family entertainment. Shaun the Sheep is one of Aardman’s best loved characters with over four-and-a-half million fans on social media and a TV series broadcast in 170 territories world-wide.
“Shaun the Sheep” and “Shaun in the City” (word marks) and the character ‘Shaun the Sheep’ are trademarks used under licence from Aardman Animations Limited.
“Shaun in the City” is a fundraising initiative by Wallace and Gromit’s Children’s Foundation, raising money for children in hospital across the UK. Charity no. 1043603.
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