Don't Rain On Our Parade

Pupils from Newcastle schools are taking part a month long art exhibition at intu Eldon Square. Elephant Parade’s instantly recognisable elephant statues are now on display in the heart of the city, as one of the thirteen tour locations across intu shopping centres. Elephant Parade is a vibrant international public art exposition featuring the artwork of established artists and celebrities on full-sized elephant statues, which are exhibited and sold to raise money for the charity The Asian Elephant Foundation. This tour is the first occasion that the work of school children will stand side-by-side with creations of top artists and public figures during an Elephant Parade that will begin this summer and visit a dozen locations over a period of more than a year. In the region, local schoolchildren were offered the once in a lifetime opportunity to design an elephant to join the tour. Pupils from Thomas Bewick, Trinity Deneview, Church and Central High Schools all designed elephants in celebration of the national tour and six students from the schools were selected to paint a smaller scale elephant exhibited at intu Eldon Square during the month long exhibition. Pupils from Central High and Church High Schools in Jesmond visited the elephants in situ, and were delighted to discover that the schools’ elephants were housed in a window unit overlooking Newgate Street, a perfect vantage point to be seen by passers by. Central High pupil Francesca Cooke, creator of ‘Tikka’ and Church High’s Emma Louise Lithgow, designer of ‘Life Cycle of a Frog’ were delighted to meet up again with their winning designs, and to check out the rest of the herd located at the shopping centre. Emma Louise said: “Painting the winning design onto the blank elephant was a real team effort, and involved all of the class getting involved! Being involved in Elephant Parade has been a really exciting thing to do, and it was great visiting the elephants today.” Francesca added: “It was more complicated that I thought it would be transferring the original design onto the elephant, but I think it was certainly worth it in the end. It was great fun visiting the shopping centre and being in the window with the winning designs.” Angela Charlton, Head of Junior School, Central Newcastle High School, commented: “The girls from Central High and Church High have enjoyed designing their own elephant sculptures for the competition and while doing so have learned a lot the importance of elephant conservation. The Elephant Parade competition reflected our creative approach to learning – making it fun, thoughtful and memorable.  It was really exciting for the girls to see their elephants join the Parade.” Phil Steele, General Manager of intu Eldon Square added: “We’re all very thrilled to be welcoming Elephant Parade to Newcastle upon Tyne. We’re part of a national tour that is bringing the 100-strong elephant herd to over half the UK population, making it the longest-running Elephant Parade to date. The good news is as this tour is all undercover there is no way anything is going to rain on this parade!” Elephant Parade is the world's largest open-air art exhibition of decorated elephant statues that seeks to attract public awareness and support for Asian elephant conservation. Created by local and international artists, each elephant is a unique piece of art.