Gromit Unleashed Hotspots
Skwigly
Visitors to charity arts trail Gromit Unleashed can collect their own booklet of mini Gromits when they visit key locations during this summer’s top tourist event.
Organisers, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal and Aardman, are producing a free, commemorative passport to be filled with embossed stamps featuring mini images of Gromit at selected tourist destinations along the trail.
The six passport stops will be located at the Grand Appeal’s office in Upper Maudlin Street, The Mall shopping centre at Cribbs Causeway, Windmill Hill City Farm in Bedminster and the Bristol Tourist Information Centre, the M Shed and At-Bristol, all located at Bristol’s Harbourside.
There will be a giant 5ft Gromit exhibited at each stop and as people visit each sculpture they will be rewarded with a mini Gromit stamp in their passport.
At each passport stop there will also be a range of exclusive Gromit Unleashed merchandise and memorabilia for sale.
The Passport Stops is one of several routes within the arts trail, being promoted to encourage families, groups and tourists to visit the major public art exhibition, which is raising funds for Bristol Children’s Hospital.
Eighty, 5 ft (1.5m) high, life-size sculptures of Aardman’s famous, triple Oscar-winning character Gromit decorated by famous artists, designers, celebrities and local artists will fill the streets of Bristol and beyond for ten weeks from 1 July.
The passport stops can be downloaded along with all the locations on the trail in a Gromit Unleashed app. Named Detect-O-Gromit, the app is being developed by Bristol-based web design agency, Element 78 Solutions Ltd. Due to be launched as the trail opens, the app will include a host of features including information on all the Gromit designs and their artists.
Visitors can see Quentin Blake’s Gromit at the Grand Appeal, Harry Hill’s Gromit at the Bristol Tourist Information Centre, Cath Kidston’s Gromit at The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, Gerald Scarfe’s Gromit at M Shed and Gromits by local artist Carys Tait at Windmill Hill City Farm and by design agency Red Central in At-Bristol.
Lauren Vincent, fundraising manager at Gromit Unleashed, said: “The Gromit Unleashed passport is a fun way to highlight locations and giant Gromits in the Grand Trail as well as providing visitors with their own keepsake of the event, filled with tiny Gromit stamps.”
After the public arts trail, the Gromit Unleashed sculptures will be auctioned to raise funds towards Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal’s campaign to support the expansion of Bristol Children’s Hospital, one of the leading multi-disciplinary children’s hospitals in the UK.
The Grand Appeal has pledged to raise an initial £3.5 million for state-of-the-art equipment, including an intraoperative MRI scanner, family facilities and child-friendly artwork to enhance the £30 million investment by the NHS.
With the support of tourism agencies Destination Bristol and VisitEngland, Gromit Unleashed will help raise the profile of the city to tourists across the UK and beyond.
The Grand Appeal is working with Wild in Art, a leading arts and education company that produces mass participation events in cities, to deliver Gromit Unleashed.
Gromit Unleashed organisers will be revealing further famous names and unveiling more finished designs in the lead up to the public arts trail.
For further information and the latest news on the project, visit www.gromit-unleashed.org.uk.
For more information on events and activities taking place in Bristol during Gromit Unleashed, plus details on accommodation options in the city, visit www.visitbristol.co.uk.