Snowdog Art Trail to hit Cardiff for Tŷ Hafan this autumn
Melanie May | 26 June 2017 | News
A Wild in Art Snowdog Art Trail will take place in Cardiff this autumn, to raise funds for children’s charity Tŷ Hafan.
For ten weeks, the 1.5m sculptures, inspired by the animated film The Snowman™ and The Snowdog, will appear across the city on the Snowdogs: Tails in Wales trail before being sold at auction for Tŷ Hafan, which supports life-limited children. The charity is also asking businesses and members of the public across south Wales to sponsor a Snowdog while trail of smaller “puppy” sculptures will be decorated by local schoolchildren, and sponsored by schools and local businesses.
Wild in Art embarked on a three-year partnership at the end of 2015 with Penguin Ventures to bring art trails featuring 1.5m tall Snowdog sculptures to Britain’s cities. Last September, Snowdogs went to Brighton & Hove, as well as Newcastle and Tyne & Wear. In Brighton, Snowdogs by the Sea raised funds for local charity, the Martlets Hospice with a trail of 45 individually designed sculptures as well as a pack of smaller-scale puppies. Great North Snowdogs saw around 60 large-scale sculptures and 100 little Snowdogs fundraise for St Oswald’s Hospice.
Snowdogs by the Sea © Martlets
Following the trails, the auctions of the 104 giant sculptures raised almost £600,000 for the charities in total. A Royal Pavilion interior-inspired Snowdog called ‘Max’ designed by Sarah Arnett reached £22,000 at the Brighton auction, while a mosaic glitter ball ‘Disco Dog’ by Natalie Guy in Gateshead raised £9,200. Research also showed that 275,000 visitors to the trails made one-off charity donations.
Wild in Art has a number of other charity art trails taking place this year: The Big Sleuth with Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity; Lincoln Knights’ Trail with Lincoln Business Improvement Group and The Nomad Trust; The BIG Stampede with Hamilton BID and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity; Sitting with Jane with Destination Basingstoke and Ark Cancer Centre Charity; and Read Manchester BookBenches with the National Literacy Trust and Manchester City Council.
Charlie Langhorne, director of Wild in Art said:
“Brighton was the obvious choice for one of our first Snowdog Art Trails as it features in The Snowman film as an iconic animated sequence. Author and illustrator of The Snowman book, Raymond Briggs lives nearby and Brighton is also my hometown.
“Wild in Art was also keen to spread the impact of its popular art trails across the UK and identified the North East as an area in which it had not undertaken much work. Similarly this year, Snowdogs: Tails in Wales will be the first time we have worked in Cardiff.
“Having decided on the areas, we approach charities about being partners. Community is at the heart of Wild in Art projects and we work with charities that are well-respected and well-loved in their local communities.”
Main image: Great North Snowdogs © Lee Gibbins Photography
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.