UK SCHOOL CHILDREN JOIN FIGHT TO SAVE THE ASIAN ELEPHANT

This month, thousands of school children from around the UK will be creating art designs for the chance to win one of 70 places to join the world’s first ever Elephant Parade national tour which starts on 21 July.

Despite touring the world, this is the first time that school children have been asked to get involved with the parade and its anticipated that thousands of designs will be submitted. The winners will then create their own half size elephant statues which will stand shoulder to shoulder with those of top artists and celebrities – the programme fulfils Elephant Parade’s aim to raise lasting awareness of the plight of the Asian Elephant amongst the next generation.

Elephant Parade is a global public art festival, which brings together the worlds of art, business and charity to create vibrant public art elephant statues that are sold or auctioned to raise money for the Asian Elephant Foundation, a charity that supports conservation of the Asian Elephant. The tour has been made possible by intu, the UK’s leading shopping centre brand and between July 2013 and August 2014, the elephant herd will travel to 14 locations across the UK, and is expected to reach over 30 million people.  

Embracing digital technology, intu will also be running a ‘digital show reel’ in its shopping centres, so that every child’s entry will be displayed on big screens in the centres for everyone to see.

With the number of wild Asian elephants declining over the last 100 years from more than 100,000 to between 35,000 and 50,000, Elephant Parade aims to raise awareness of conservation issues surrounding the Asian elephant through fun and engaging art pieces that pull communities together and give people a reason to smile. Money raised from the sale of tour elephants will support the Asian Elephant Foundation, a charity that backs conservation and education projects that give a future to the Asian Elephant.

Trevor Pereira, commercial director at intu said: “It was incredibly important to us for Elephant Parade’s message to reach as far and wide as possible so we wanted to take Elephant Parade out of London and into towns and cities across the UK.

The next generation is so important in spreading the awareness message and I cannot think of a better way to spread the importance of conservation than by getting the youth of today involved in this project.”  

Mike Spits, Co-Founder of Elephant Parade commented: “From the outset a key objective of the Elephant Parade national tour was to move beyond just fund raising for conservation and focus more attention on raising deep and lasting awareness of the underlying issues faced by the Asian elephant. In past years dozens of celebrities have submitted designs for our parades, but this tour puts the talent of tomorrow centre stage.”

Elephant Parade artist, Shear Abrahams, who will be judging the competition added: “Children adore elephants - when I painted my elephant for the 2010 Elephant Parade, nothing made me happier than seeing children clambering all over it in Green Park!  And now they have the chance to design their own - what a fantastic opportunity and I cannot wait to see what they come up with.”

ENDS

For more information about the schools programme, please 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 newsroom at http://www.mynewsdesk.com/pressroom/elephant-parade

Notes to editors

The elephant Parade national tour: Official tour venues and dates

2013 

2014
5 January – intu Victoria Centre/ Broadmarsh, Nottingham (5 weeks)
9 February - intu Braehead, Glasgow (4 weeks)
9 March - intu Potteries, Stoke (4 weeks)
7 April – intu Chapelfield, Norwich (4 weeks)
5 May – intu Lakeside, Essex (4 weeks)
2 June – intu Uxbridge ( 4 weeks)
30 June – intu Bromley (4 weeks)
28 July - London (2 weeks) 

Comments from artists taking part in the Elephant Parade national tour

Christine Wilcox- Baker (West Yorkshire)

“At school my favourite thing was the 'nature table' and the fascination for

all things flora and fauna has always stayed with me and is the core focus

that inspires and  influences my work. I think it's a great idea to involve

schools in Elephant Parade and help children learn from an early age about

conservation and about caring for all the beings that we share our planet

with.”

Patricia Shrigley (London)

“The Asian elephants’ habitat is shrinking. My elephant ‘Wild London’ is about the enjoyment of local wildlife. We have to look after the living planet and all its creatures because without them it would be a sad barren earth. The touring elephant parade is a celebration of our relation with wildlife and showing we do care.”

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

About Intu Properties plc (www.intugroup.co.uk):

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 over 17 million sq ft of retail space valued at over £7 billion as at 31 December 2012, our centres attract some 340 million customer visits a year and two thirds of the UK population live within a 45 minute drive time of one of our centres.

At the forefront of UK shopping centre evolution since the 1970s our focus is on creating compelling destinations for consumers with added theatre.

On 15 January this year, we announced the creation of a nationwide consumer facing shopping centre brand - intu - and the transformation of our digital proposition including a transactional website, to provide the UK’s leading shopping centre experience on and off-line.

We have an investment plan of £1 billion over the next ten years on active management projects at most of our centres and major extensions.

Over 80,000 people are employed at our centres across the UK and we are fully committed to supporting our local communities and the wider environment through meaningful and hands-on initiatives.

We changed our name from Capital Shopping Centres Group plc to Intu Properties plc on 18 February 2013.