A large steel sculpture to support Ukraine was erected on Broad Street, Oxford
Dan Barton at Historic Building Restoration who we partnered with for St George’s Tower, Oxford is also Oxfordshires Community Artist. Back in 2019, Dan and a group of local volunteers set up a not-for-profit organisation Standing with Giants. They create large scale art installations using recycled building materials and provide meaningful spaces for people to visit and reflect.
Please read the below press release from Standing with Giants about Oxford Standing with Ukraine:
On Wednesday 30th March at 12 noon, a large steel sculpture to support Ukraine will be erected in Broad Street, Oxford, just 12 days after its inception. It’s the brainchild of Dan Barton, founder of Standing with Giants. Dan has designed with artist Peter Naylor a 12ft high Ukrainian Soldier holding a baby, leading a Ukrainian woman and child to safety.
Historically monuments, tributes and sculptures come after the event, however, for Ukraine we want to act now. If people have already donated to one of the Ukrainian funding drives and feel they want to do more please donate here, we will keep creating the installations for as long as we can fund them. Dan feels imagery plays a huge part in war; it can send a powerful message to aggressors and show a meaningful message of solidarity to those in need.
Dan says he was contacted by a Ukrainian lady who had heard about our plans. “I was humbled by what she told me. I met with her in Oxford, she looked tired and in shock often seeming to drift off. Her worry was for her family taking refuge in a cellar in Kharkiv, sheltering from the bombs falling nearby. Despite the awfulness of what her family are currently enduring she wanted to say thank you from the bottom of her heart, on behalf of the Ukrainian people and remarkably from her parents who she was able to contact wanting to say thank you that we had not forgotten them”
Now the design has been created. It will be easier to make more, they are made from thick Steel which is cut out by laser. The blueprints will be available to share, the hope is we will erect many more in cities around the UK and encourage others to do so around the world. How can people help? People can get involved by asking MP’s, Councils and organisations in their cities and towns to display one of these tributes to show a combined message of solidarity.
NOTES TO EDITOR:
Press to visit: Broad Street, Oxford from 12 noon, Wednesday 30th March 2022
Phone: 07980 373579
Email: info@standingwithgiants.co.uk
Website: standingwithgiants.co.uk
Social: https://www.instagram.com/standing.with.giants
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel
Standing with Giants is a not-for-profit organisation, set up in 2019 by Oxfordshire Community Artist, Dan Barton, and a group of local volunteers. They create large scale art installations using recycled building materials and provide meaningful spaces for people to visit and reflect. Their ethos is to value life, to understand and appreciate why we have our freedom, and to remember and pay tribute to those who have fallen so we can live the lives we have today.
To do all this, Standing with Giants are seeking grant funding and sponsorship, to help run the organisation.
