Artist Ros Harrison’s design for Cambridge Standing Tall connects Cambridge to Africa
With the Cambridge Standing Tall art trail due to begin next month, the Cambridge Independent can this week reveal the giraffe sculpture we are sponsoring, designed and painted by artist Ros Harrison.
The public art sculpture trail will involve around 30 large giraffes, each created by a different artist. They are due to gallop onto the city’s streets for 10 weeks from 21 March.
Delivered by local charity Break, which supports young people in and around care, in partnership with Wild in Art, Cambridge BID and Alan Boswell Group, the trail is expected to bring more than 350,000 residents and visitors to the city and follows on from the udderly brilliant success of Cows about Cambridge, which generated an economic impact of £19.5million for the local business community.
Once the 10-week trail has finished, the giraffes will be auctioned off to raise money for Break, with all proceeds going towards helping young care leavers and their journey towards independence.
As media partner for the trail, the Cambridge Independent was among the sponsors invited to a design selection event.
Editor Paul Brackley said: “There were lots of great designs put forward by artists, which I’m looking forward to seeing, but for us it was clear – we wanted to work with Ros and see her design come to life.
“We are fans of Ros’s work and we loved the way the design had a story to it, explaining how swifts visit the city each year before returning to Africa in the colder months.
“It’s a clever connection to the continent that giraffes call home and an eye-catching, colourful design.”
Ros, who has worked with Break on other projects too, is understandably proud of her finished giraffe.
“I’m very pleased with it – the swifts look really good and they go all around the neck,” she explained, “and then there’s the tree and the Cambridge skyline...”
Ros, who was inspired by the swifts she sees flying over her studio, noted that the sculpture will be placed “in the centre of Cambridge” – but the precise location is still under wraps.
She added: “It will be somewhere where people can see both sides, because the two sides are very different. One side’s blue with Cambridge and the other’s orange, an Africa side.”
Ros notes that she very much enjoyed doing it. “I am excited about the whole trail,” she says, “because it is such a nice thing for Cambridge.”
[Read more: Cambridge Standing Tall: Jiggles and Iggles unveiled as sponsors select giraffe designs for sculpture trail, Businesses are Standing Tall to support Cambridge charity Break]
For more information on Cambridge Standing Tall, go to break-charity.org/cambridge-standing-tall/. To see more of Ros’s work, go to rosalindharrison.com.
