Art Sculpture Designed by Local Pupils Unveiled in Stalybridge

PUPILS at two local schools have unveiled a fantastic wooden sculpture as a lasting legacy to The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and Stalybridge’s Town of Culture 2022 status.

Tameside Council’s Arts and Events team supported Permanent Education to deliver a series of arts and culture projects to students at Millbrook Primary School and Wildbank Primary School, following a successful funding bid from the National Lottery Community Fund. The funding has allowed students to take part in the arts programme and secure their Arts Award.

Permanent Education and Tameside Council have worked with over 120 pupils from the local schools in projects combining art and permaculture.

Activities included making wildflower seed-bombs, drawing close observations of wild flowers and examining the inputs and outputs of a Wildflower meadow for communities and biodiversity. The pupils also created their own artistic wooden discs using bush craft skills and painted wildflower meadows.

The final part of the project saw the installation of a sculpture designed and commissioned by the pupils for their local greenspace, supported by Tameside Greenspace team. The final sculpture was created by chainsaw artist, Mike Burgess based on the students’ designs.

Councillor Sangita Patel, Assistant Executive Member for Culture, Heritage & Digital inclusivity said: “This project has been a fantastic opportunity for pupils to combine creativity with learning about nature and getting outdoors. I encourage local families to go and see the fantastic sculpture that will pay lasting homage to The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Stalybridge’s Town of Culture status and a return to the collaborative arts that were so sorely missed throughout the pandemic”.

Paula Moses, Director at Permanent Education CIC said: “This isn’t just a fun project to do at the end of term – feedback from schools states that it provides a real opportunity for pupils to learn about art, nature and community as well as develop their speaking & listening and 4Cs thinking skills.”

Rebecca Gough, Co-Director at Permanent Education CIC, said: “We are very grateful for the support we have received for this project – not only from the National Lottery Communities Fund but importantly from PG Fabrications in Hyde, who have kindly installed the finished sculpture for free in Woodview Park. We would also like to thank Tracy Webster and her team at the TMBC Culture & Libraries Department who provided the Arts Award booklets and certificates for 120 pupils and John Courtman at TMBC Greenspaces who helped us find the perfect place for the sculpture.”

You can see the sculpture at Woodview Park, Carrbook, SK15.