Similar to Tour De Yorkshire Events, the UCI Road World Championships 2019 gave the opportunity for Communities to create Land Art which could be picked up by the TV Helicopter Crews and seen by 250 million viewers worldwide.

Trust 22 / Local Schools

The biggest success story which came from Doncasters Land Art was the large sculpture of a UCI Coloured Cyclist created by Recycled Plastic Bottles. The project was a joint collaboration between Trust 22, Brooke Primary Academy, Thorne Greentop Primary and Marshland Primary Academy.

The Land Art was shortlisted in the Yorkshire 2019 Land Art Competition and was voted as the runner up. 

UCI Land Art Competition Shortlist

The below is the Trust 22s Chairperson, Amie Knott's story of how this Land Art came about:-

"4 weeks before the event, we found out that there was not many people along the route who were planning Land Art, so obviously we weren’t going to let the event come through Thorne without us putting on a show."

"We collected single use plastic bottles with the help of pupils at Thorne Green Top, Marshland Primary Academy and Brooke Primary Academy."

"We worked with Lindsay Blackham at Marshland to create the design and see how the children could be involved. Together with Lindsay we encouraged schools to take part with us, and had responses from Brooke Primary Academy and Thorne Green Top."

"We believed the best way to involve the children was to run an environmental project alongside the UCI event. This was relevant for the following reasons:-
  • Trust22 had just launched the Refill UK scheme in Thorne and Moorends encouraging local businesses to become ‘refill stations’ to fight the war on plastic
  • Children from the schools regularly join trust22 on litter picks and have commented previously about the amount of plastic bottles we pick up
  • Mayor Ros Jones was due to announce the climate emergency as part of the youth climate strike"
"Children created banners to showcase their message about plastics. These were displayed from the balcony at Civic Office on 20th Sept during the Youth Climate strike. The banners depicted the perils of single use plastic, showing the effect on sea life and the world in general with catchy slogans like ‘be part of the solution, not the pollution’ and ‘don’t be drastic, say no to plastic’"

Marshland Primary School Banners

"All together the children saved more than 3,000 plastic bottles which were then used to create the land art."

Litterpicking for recycled plastics

"Volunteers created the Land Art in Thorne Memorial Park at 4:45am. Due to the tight turnaround to put this together we had one chance to get it right, and no way of seeing it from above until the helicopter crews did."

Trust 22 Land Art

"Volunteers assisting me on the project were:- 
  • Dave Knott (Trust22 Trustee)
  • Stefanie Langfield (Trust22 events volunteer)
  • Lisa Hallam (Trust22 litter pick volunteer)
  • Craig Ellis (Thorne Moorends Town Council Deputy Mayor)
  • Tracie Lake (Trust22 volunteer)"
The rest is history – the art looked phenomenal, the children were ecstatic and we got 2nd place in the competition!

Trust 22 receiving their award
 
"One thing I do want to get across is what great role models these children are."

"Somehow we pulled it off and I think it’s because of the important message we had to deliver."

"The children knew we would only ever have an event like this once, and that it was being broadcast to 250m homes. At a time when protest marches and youth activism gets so much negative press, and a time when our children feel the need to miss education and teach us adults about the impact we have on their planet I think it’s absolutely incredible for them to be so responsible and do something so brilliantly positive."

"We tried to show them a different way of getting their message across, they grasped that opportunity and it’s absolutely paid off. It’s not about me, or the other volunteers. We’ll campaign all day long with or without the world’s approval, but to these children having their message heard and celebrated is massive. It’s definitely going to encourage them to take more action and join us in future."

 To download the Full Yorkshire 2019 Land Art Winner Announcement Press Release click the following link:-

Press Release - World Championships Land Art Winner Announced
Download (217KB - DOCX)

Trinity Academy / West Road Primary School

Trinity Academy (Thorne) and West Road Primary School (Thorne) also utilised recycled plastic bottles to create a large cyclist design alongside a Yorkshire Rose with West Road Academy Coloured words. The project was produced by Staff, School children and their parents.

Trinity Academy & West Road Primary Land Art

Thorne Green Top Primary School

Thorne Green Top Primary School (Thorne) showed their enthusiasm for the event by replicating the famous UCI Rainbow Jersey in a large piece of art on their school field.

Thorne Greentop Primary School Land Art

Doncaster Council

Created by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, this large scale land art was designed by Liz Million – winner of Big Draw Project competition.

Are you inspired to get into cycling?

Whether it is part of a cycling club, to ride to work or just as a bit of fun to pass away an evening or the weekend with family and friends go to: Cycling in Doncaster and give it a try.

UCI Road World Championships 2019 and Doncaster Council logo

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Last updated: 03 June 2020 21:31:35

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