Aberdeen goes wild for dolphins

This June will see the public launch of one of WDC’s biggest ever events, Wild Dolphins – a collaboration between ourselves, children’s hospital charity the ARCHIE Foundation and events company Wild in Art.

You may well have seen similar Wild in Art events in a city near you: Rhinos in Southampton, Gromits in Bristol, elephants in Melbourne, lions in Cape Town…

Ours, naturally, involves dolphins.  Bottlenose dolphins in Aberdeen to be precise, a city named as one of the best places to go dolphin watching in the UK.  

So, from 23rd June – 29th August, the streets of Aberdeen will come alive with giant sculptures of dolphins – life-size adult dolphins that have been sponsored by local companies and painted by local artists, and dolphin calves designed and decorated by schoolchildren. The dolphins will form a free city-wide art trail that can be enjoyed by locals and visitors alike before the larger dolphins are auctioned off to raise funds for WDC and ARCHIE.

What I particularly love about the whole project is its inclusiveness. The entire city and surrounding area can get involved in one way or another, and its younger generation is very much an integral part of it all.

We have over 30 schools participating in the project and I had the pleasure of delivering sculptures and workshops to a number of them a few weeks ago along with my colleague, Lorna, from our Scottish Dolphin Centre. The look of excitement on their, and a few of the teacher’s, faces as they met their dolphin for the first time was heart-warming to see! Every school will also receive a cross-curricular education pack, full of ideas of how to decorate their sculpture but also activities linked to various subjects encouraging them to learn more about the very special marine mammals that live on their doorstep and how to protect them.

I can’t wait to see some of their designs…watch this space as they start to come in!