The immersive art trail will be ‘waddling’ into the city in aid of Havens Hospices.
Havens Hospices has revealed its next Wild in Art public art trail will be Waddle-on-Sea, following the successes of Hares About Town in 2021 and Herd in the City in 2023, which raised over £1 million for local hospice care.
Waddle-on-Sea will feature a huddle of penguins, which will pop up across the city in summer 2025. The large penguins will be sponsored by local businesses and decorated by artists. They will be accompanied by a huddle of smaller sculptures, adopted and decorated by schools, community groups and organisations.
At the end of the trail the sculptures will be auctioned to raise money for the free hospice care from Fair Havens and Little Havens, which thousands of local families rely on when diagnosed with a complex or incurable condition.
Vanessa Harvey, Project Manager from Havens Hospices, says, “Due to the stomping success of Herd In The City, I’m delighted that we can bring yet another sculpture trail to Southend, helping make art accessible to all. We’ll be turning the high street and seafront into an immersive gallery, leading the way for visitors to get up close with the stunning creations, many of which will be local artists.”
Managing Director and Co-founder of Wild in Art, Charlie Langhorne, said: “It’s great to be teaming up once again with Havens Hospices to create this new art trail – our third in the city. The penguin is a wonderful sculpture, and I have no doubt that it will capture everyone’s imagination and bring artists, young people, communities and businesses together to create something very special next summer.”
Artists can express their interest in participating by submitting their design ideas via the website – waddleonsea.co.uk. The website also provides more information for organisations that would like to sponsor a large penguin sculpture and schools and community groups who would like to adopt their own baby penguin sculpture.
You can keep up to date with the trail by following the art trail on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by searching ‘waddleonsea’.
It’s going to be brrrrrilliant!
