Winning Sculpture Unveiled

On Thursday, 23 June 2022, the Gallery Of Living History team unveiled an interactive plinth displaying the winning artwork from the Gallery of Living History schools’ competition. The plinth and artwork, situated in Starley Gardens on the Coventry University campus, is now open to the public for viewing.

Andy Serkis, Jonathan Cavendish and Pauline Black OBE attended the event to recognise the achievements of the runners up and the winners.

Congratulations again to Sidney Stringer Academy School for winning the 2021-2022 Schools Competition with their ‘Peace, Equality, Unity and Acceptance’ tree of hands sculpture!

Congratulations also go to the team from Sidney Stringer for their entry on Pauline Black and to Moreton School for their entry titled Justice for NHS, which were the runners-up.

The new sculpture, which stands in pride of place in Starley Gardens, brings to life the winning teams’ concept of ‘Peace, Equality, Unity and Acceptance’ and features the schoolchildren’s hands cast to form the branches of the tree and a dove of peace. The sculpture, cast by Pangolin Editions Foundry, sits on a plinth, sponsored by Andy Serkis, which also features video and audio facilities to enhance the sculpture.

An Augmented Reality trail, developed by Digital Media students at Coventry University, features 3D models of the concepts for the second and third place runners up which can be positioned virtually on the plinth using your phone or tablet device. The Humanities students from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities worked with the school children on their concepts. You can listen to their responses to the Pauline Black entry and the NHS entry below.

The trail also features short videos of nominated local heroes talking about their work. The heroes come from a variety of backgrounds from volunteer community first responders to those involved in tackling hunger and homelessness.

We’d like to express our thanks to our sponsors from NP Aerospace, led by Roger Medwell, who have helped our endeavour enormously and whose generosity we cherish.

The level of entries from all the schools that submitted were of a very high standard and the judges commend all the teams that took part.

As part of the first phase of the launch of the Gallery of Living History, schools in and around Coventry, Warwickshire and the Midlands were asked to respond to a brief asking them to nominate a person or group of people that they felt should be commemorated.

About the competition

Learners between the ages of 11 and 16 were asked to design an artwork/statue that celebrates and commemorates an unsung person or people, living or dead, whose heroic story has never been properly told.

A panel of judges from a variety of fields were asked to select a winner and two runners up. The winning team’s project vision was made into a sculpture by foundry Pangolin Editions, which is also fabricating the plinth, to stand in a location in Coventry during Spring 2022.  

The work of the two teams of runners-up is shown virtually on screens, on the side of the Plinth, and as part of the augmented reality trail surrounding the plinth. 

As part of the project development process, the teams from the selected schools were invited to a workshop hosted by Coventry University’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Teams had the opportunity to work with staff from the Faculty to develop models and mock-ups of their ideas and to refine their projects before final submission for judging.