Search begins for the youngest Elephant Parade artist

On Friday 22 March, children from two schools will submit their designs in a bid to win a commission to take part in a nationwide art exposition. But designs will not be on a canvas, the winning entries will be painted on an elephant statue that will join the forthcoming Elephant Parade national tour.

Two Sussex schools are the first of dozens of UK schools to get involved in the 2013/14 Elephant Parade, a 10-month tour visiting 12 towns and cities around the UK that, for the first time, will feature school elephant designs standing shoulder-to-shoulder with creations from top artists and international celebrities.

The tour is being brought to the UK by lead sponsor intu, the UK’s leading shopping centre owner and manager that runs centres such as Lakeside in Thurrock and the Trafford Centre in Manchester. With a vibrant community investment programme already in place, intu was keen to directly involve schools from around the UK in the new Elephant Parade tour.

Over the last month, pupils from the first two schools to be involved in the national programme have created more than 600 design ideas. Mike Spits, co-founder of Elephant Parade, will be flying into the UK especially to judge the school entries. Joining intu and Elephant Parade for the judging day will also be two artists.

Elephant Parade is a public art festival, which brings together the worlds of art, business and charity to create vibrant parades of elephants that are sold or auctioned to raise money for The Asian Elephant Foundation, a charity which supports conservation of the Asian elephant.

Past Elephant Parades have attracted top celebrities and artists. The school judging this week will set a new record for the youngest ever artist to design an elephant for an Elephant Parade.

Mike Spits, Co-Founder of Elephant Parade commented: “From the outset a key objective of the Elephant Parade national tour was to focus more attention on raising deep and lasting awareness of the issues. In the months ahead dozens of schools will be invited to create an elephant, which will join their local leg of the tour. The school competitions promote artistic talent in the classroom, raise awareness of conservation issues in an engaging way.”

Trevor Pereira, Commercial Director at intu commented: “Elephant Parade needs no introduction. Wherever it goes, it enlivens, energises and stimulates the places it visits and offers something for everyone. In sponsoring the new tour, we will be showcasing the elephants in our shopping centres that attract 320 million visitors a year. In giving school children the opportunity to create elephants that will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the designs of top artists, we hope to showcase tomorrow’s talent today. We are proud to be presenting what we think will be the definitive Elephant Parade, a national tour with local flavour that offers a welcome boost to retailers and will give millions of people a reason to smile.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

To request permission to visit the schools during the judging, to send a photographer or to arrange interviews contact:

Guy Bellamy: 07766 775216             guy@elephantcommunications.co.uk

Harriet Powell: 07738 160961         harriet@elephantcommunications.co.uk

For high resolution Elephant Parade images or to register for forthcoming news alerts on the UK tour, visit the Elephant Parade international news room at http://www.mynewsdesk.com/pressroom/elephant-parade

Schools and artists that are interested in getting involved with the Elephant Parade national tour, can register at www.elephantcommunications.co.uk

14 parades have taken place or are in preparation:

Rotterdam 2007                    

Antwerp 2008                        

Amsterdam 2009

Emmen 2010                         

London 2010                          

Bergen 2010             

Heerlen 2011                        

Copenhagen 2011                

Milan 2011   

Singapore 2011                     

Hasselt 2012                         

UK tour 2013/14

Southern California 2013    

Luxembourg 2013

Intu Properties plc 

Intu Properties plc (formerly Capital Shopping Centres PLC) owns and operates some of the very best shopping centres, in the strongest locations right across the country, including ten of the UK’s top 25.  You can find every one of the UK’s top 20 retailers in our shopping centres, alongside some of the world’s most iconic global brands.

With 16.6 million sq ft of retail space, valued at £7 billion, our centres attract over 320 million customer visits a year and two thirds of the UK population live within a 45 minute drive time of one of our centres.