Enter Peterborough Present's city-wide competition - ‘Spread Your Wings’

Design your own bird, have it painted by a professional artist and see it on display at Peterborough Celebrates Festival.

Arts organisation Peterborough Presents, which is hosted by Nene Park Trust, has launched an exciting collaborative project filled with local flavour & pride for Peterborough Celebrates Festival in May. They are asking groups, schools and individuals from around Greater Peterborough to help design and make ostrich-sized birds that represent their sense of pride & show off their creativity. This flock of different designs and styles will then be installed by artists at Peterborough Celebrates Festival - 19-21 May.

Keely Mills, Community Producer at Peterborough Presents explains “We’re using birds of paradise as a theme for this year’s project at Peterborough Celebrates. We’re looking for people to design their own bird that include your idea of paradise or messages of hope. You might just be expert doodler, or the next Michaelangelo, be aged 5 – 80+ or somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter. We’re looking for creativity, not who can draw the best. We can’t wait to see people’s designs. Together we can create a flightless installation that will be brighter than a flamingo or flashier than a peacock.”

You could take inspiration for your design from your favourite colours (as many as you like), favourite patterns, things you love, things that make you happy or bring joy. There’s a template to design onto which is available on the Peterborough Presents website along with all the details of how to submit your entries. The deadline for entries is Friday 31^st March. A group of artists will then select the design and paint these up to create a large-scale flock of birds for the festival.

If your submission is selected then you will be invited along to see it being painted. Artists working on the project include Rose Croft, Amanda Rigby and Jason Duckmanton of Paper Rhino and Korp. There will also be birds designed by Millfield Carnival group, residents at Lapwing Court, Eye Youth Group, Orton Makers, residents at HMP Peterborough and one designed via a special competition for schools in the Ortons. Your winning bird design could join this flock too!

To find out more about the competition and to download the template visit https://peterboroughpresents.org/spread-your-wings/ or email [email protected]