NEWS RELEASES
One Hundred Million Year Old Inspiration
12th December 2006
On 15 December two artworks will be unveiled at Southwater whose inspiration had lain buried in the ground for 100 million years. It took the imagination of over 20 pupils and the drive of one art teacher, together with a sculptor, to create the two art works, but, next week, they will dominate one of the main areas of the new Civic Centre in the brand new Lintot Square development.
The art works were created as part of an art project based around the discovery in the 1920s of some iguanodon fossils in brick pits at Southwater. When Horsham District Council decided to create Lintot Square, they and Miller Construction (UK) Ltd. agreed to sponsor Hannah Stewart, a locally renowned artist, to create a bronze statute of the iguanodon, linking the prehistoric, historic and the future together. The sculpture would form the centrepiece of the modern but traditional village centre.
It was also decided that the fossil remains would act as the catalyst for two artworks to be created by the local Southwater Junior School and the nearby Forest Boys School in Horsham. The art teacher at Forest, Marilyn Amos, would work with both schools, as would the artist Hannah Stewart. Horsham Museum would provide the pupils with relevant information as well as work out the installation of the art work.
The pupils have spent this year talking to the sculptor in her studio where they saw the bronze sculpture taking shape from drawing to casting. They visited the Natural History Museum, poring over books and models as well as the internet in order to formulate their ideas. It then involved the skill of the art teacher to ensure that their ideas were actually compatible with the clay medium. Interestingly, Southwater Junior School came up with an abstract design, each pupil basing his or her patterns on the fossil remains, whilst Forest pupils decided to create scenes from prehistoric life.
On 15th December 2006, both art works will be unveiled, together with Hannah Stewart’s sculpture, by the Chairman of Horsham District, Cllr Bernard Baldwin.
For further information contact Jeremy Knight, Curator of Horsham Museum, on Tel: (01403) 254959, or e-mail: jeremy.knight@horsham.gov.uk