In 2023 we celebrated 15 years of Wild in Art – 15 years of embracing the transformative power of creativity and connecting communities and causes worldwide through our diverse projects and installations.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our event partners, to sponsors, supporters, artists, schools, community groups and to our trail-goers who always embrace our events with unwavering dedication and enthusiasm.

A look back on 2023

2023 took us to 22 different locations with Leeds, Swindon, Croydon and Doncaster all welcoming their first Wild in Art trails and Holzkirchen hosting the first Wild in Art produced event in Germany.

Over 1,000 sculptures took art out of the gallery and onto our streets and public spaces for 266 days of the year.

Through the incredible generosity of sponsors, charity supporters and trail-goers, an incredible £2.4 million was raised for our charity partners at the auctions of the large sculptures.

The year also saw a new record for the highest bid for a Wild in Art sculpture, when Tortoise Takeover’s special Hare sculpture ‘Love to Run’ received a bid of £100,000 for Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Visitors travelled from near and far to complete their favourite trails and those using our interactive trail apps unlocked over 2.8 million sculptures, taking over 858 million steps to find them – that’s like walking around the Earth over 15 times!

Trail-goers found delight in discovering the captivating artwork contributed by more than 500 artists as well as over 152,000 young individuals engaged through the learning programmes.

We had visits from iconic characters Morph, Shaun the Sheep, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, The Snowman™ and The Snowdog and the ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ bear.

And at National Trust’s Petworth House and Park, we launched our latest Elmer the Patchwork Elephant trail featuring designs inspired by world-renowned artists, including J.M.W. Turner, Yayoi Kusama, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Manchester, Eccles and the Tower of London hosted specially commissioned projects which engaged creatives and young people across the UK and we even had a royal visit from King Charles III and Queen Camilla to our Coronation Bench Trail for Historic Royal Palaces!

Mitigating our impact

To help balance our environmental impact, a donation to Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust will enable 2,000 trees from a variety of species to be planted in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.

This will facilitate the restoration of around one hectare of precious forest habitat, an area similar to a full-sized rugby pitch.

Find out more about Durrell’s carbon balancing programme.

Coming up this year

In 2024, we are looking forward to returning to Worcester with St Richard’s Hospice, Cambridge with Break, Luton with Keech Hospice Care and Maidstone with Heart of Kent Hospice.

We are also very excited to see Blackpool, Oxford, Swansea, Perth and Kinross, Chichester and Aarhus in Denmark welcome their first ever Wild in Art trail.