Accountancy and investment management group Smith & Williamson has become the latest blue-chip firm to sponsor a Shaun the Sheep sculpture as part of next year’s Shaun in the City charity arts trails in Bristol and London.
The campaign, to be launched by Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal, will raise money for children’s hospitals in Bristol and across the UK. It will be staged in partnership with Aardman, the Bristol-based animation studio behind Shaun.
Some 60 Shaun sculptures will go on display in London between March 28 and May 25, and another 60 in Bristol from July 6 to August 31 to form ‘a trail of two cities’. Shaun in the City follows last year’s hugely successful Gromit Unleashed campaign, which Smith & Williamson also supported by sponsoring a giant Gromit sculpture.
Bristol office managing partner Mike Lea said: “Our media and creative sector team has worked closely with Aardman Animations for many years and we are delighted to be able to support The Grand Appeal in their latest fund-raising venture.
“We look forward to meeting ‘our’ Shaun the Sheep as well as all the others which are being expertly designed in time for the launch of the public art trails in London in March 2015 and Bristol in July.
“The quality of work undertaken by Aardman Animations and its charity partners, The Grand Appeal, is inspirational to all of us working in the sector and we are proud to be associated with them.”
A trail map will be published to help Shaun fans track down all the sculptures when they are unveiled next year.
The sculptures, which will be designed and decorated by high-profile artists, designers, celebrities and local talent, will be reunited after the two trails at two Great Sheep Round-Up exhibitions in London and Bristol followed by a charity auction when they will be sold to raise money for the children’s hospitals.
Other Bristol firms already signed up as sponsors include law firms Burges Salmon and Veale Wasbrough Vizards, aero-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, wealth management group Hargreaves Lansdown and development capital firm LDC.
Pictured: Some of the first Shaun sculptures. Photo ©&TM Aardman/Shaun the Sheep Ltd. 2014 ® Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal. Charity No. 1043603
