Calling all artists and designers!

We are looking for talented artists and designers to paint our herd– and make Elmer’s Great North Parade the biggest, brightest and best mass participation art trail the north east has ever seen!

Elmer’s Great North Parade by St Oswald’s Hospice in partnership with Wild in Art and publisher Andersen Press will take place in August 2019, with around 70 individually decorated fibreglass statues of the popular children’s picture book character, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, positioned throughout Tyne and Wear.

Written and illustrated by David McKee, the Elmer books published by Andersen Press feature a patchwork elephant whose unique colours mark him apart from the rest of the herd – and we hope artists will let their imaginations run riot in creating designs of their own.

Not only will those whose designs are chosen receive an artist fee of £800, but their work will be seen and enjoyed by the estimated 700,000 visitors to Elmer’s Great North Parade.

Newcastle-based Artist Amanda Rabey, who designed a Snowdog for the earlier trail, said:

“Being a Great North Snowdogs artist was a major factor in my sales increasing. My involvement as an artist gave potential customers greater confidence to buy and helped get my name heard and work see by vast numbers of people from the region and beyond.”

Project curator Victoria Maddison added:

“This is a unique opportunity for artists to see their work being enjoyed and viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. We welcome original designs from both emerging and professional artists across the region and beyond. The successful artists will be expected to transfer their design onto a large three dimensional Elmer which will sell at auction. We look forward to seeing a variety of creative designs over the coming weeks.”

Submissions must be made via an online form at www.greatnorthelmer.co.uk/artists and the closing date for entries is 14 February 2019. Artworks will be presented to the sculpture sponsors in May 2019 and the artists whose designs are chosen will need to transfer their designs on to the full-sized Elmer sculpture between the end of May and the beginning of August 2019.