Hull, the hometown of the late musician Mick Ronson, is set to host 50 six-foot-tall sculptures of rats in honor of the celebrated guitarist. Renowned for his work as David Bowie’s lead guitarist, Ronson spent his early years playing with Hull’s rock group The Rats. Ronson went on to play on several iconic albums, including Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” and “Aladdin Sane,” as well as with other major musicians such as Lou Reed and Bob Dylan. The Mischief of Rats sculpture trail is set to debut in April 2025 and will run for three months.
Organizations and local businesses in the Hull area are invited to sponsor a rat sculpture for £4,500. Proceeds from the trail will benefit the Daisy Appeal, which supports advanced detection of cancer, heart disease, and dementia. The sculptures will be auctioned in September 2025 to raise an expected amount of £250,000 for the charity.
Project director Rick Welton noted that the trail has been a major success in the past, including the highly popular Larkin with Toads trail that raised over £60,000 for charity, A Moth for Amy which garnered £85,000 and the Puffins Galore project that raised nearly £120,000. Artists will be invited to submit designs for each rat sculpture later this year.
Welton commented on the success of this animal-based sculpture trail, saying: “[It] will raise much-needed funds to support the vital work of the Castle Hill Hospital based charity, The Daisy Appeal, which helps advanced and detailed detection of cancer, heart disease and dementia through highly advanced PET-CT scanning techniques.” Welton hopes that the sculpture trail will also attract thousands of visitors to the region.
In other news, musician Brian Eno has recently shared his “powerful” David Bowie collaboration “Get Real,” which he reworked as part of a new climate change album project.
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