Gromit Unleashed
Gromit Unleashed was a public charity art trail led by Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal and Aardman Animations, in which 80 giant artist-decorated fibreglass sculptures of Gromit were displayed on the streets of Bristol and the surrounding area between 1 July and 8 September 2013. At the end of the art trail, the sculptures were auctioned to raise funds for Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital Charity. The Grand Appeal pledged to raise £3.5 million for state-of-the-art equipment for Bristol Children's Hospital, including an intraoperative MRI scanner, family  facilities and child-friendly artwork to help save the lives of sick children at the hospital. All funds raised by Gromit Unleashed contributed towards this. The project follows the concept of the "Land in Sicht", the original Swiss project by artistic director Walter Knapp which inspired the subsequent worldwide exhibition "CowParade" and similar exhibitions in other cities, including Wow! Gorillas which took place in Bristol in 2011. To date Gromit Unleashed has raised over £5 million for Bristol Children's Hospital. Background. Gromit. Gromit is a dog belonging to an eccentric inventor, Wallace, in a series of claymation films  produced by Aardman Animations, based in Spike Island, Bristol. Three of the films in the "Wallace and Gromit" film series have won Academy Awards: "The Wrong Trousers", "A Close Shave" and "". Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal. The aim of Gromit Unleashed was to fundraise for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal. Founded in 1995, the charity raises funds for paediatric medical equipment at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and St. Michael's Hospital. In collaboration with Aardman, it uses the characters Wallace and Gromit as mascots for the charity. Funds were raised through the sale of trail maps , merchandise, and "Detect-o-Gromit", a smartphone app, aimed at helping users find the Gromit sculptures, costing 69p per download. On the first week, "Detect-o-Gromit" reached #1 on the Entertainment chart and #2 on the Paid chart on Apple's App Store. Sculptures. Creation. In the months prior to the trail, 79 blank fibreglass statues measuring in height were distributed to designers and celebrities selected by Nick Park. Each recipient was free to design their statue as they wished, producing a vast array of designs. Some of the statues were publicly painted by their designers in the Galleries  shopping centre. Each statue was then transported to an undisclosed warehouse in Bristol to be treated with a lacquer and erected onto a concrete plinth. Nick Park's own sculpture, "Newshound," is the only sculpture which feature Wallace, alongside his trusty canine sidekick Gromit. On 1 July 2013, the statues were distributed around Bristol and tourist attractions in the Greater Bristol area. One was also placed at London Paddington station, but was moved to the Gromit Unleashed HQ for the final week of the exhibition. Sculptures were decorated by a range of artists and celebrities, including Joanna Lumley, Sir Peter  Blake, Trevor Baylis and Jools Holland. The Royal Mint and mosaic artist Stephanie Roberts created a special Royal Mint Gromit, decorated with coins. US Animation studio Pixar contributed Gromit Lightyear, based on their character Buzz Lightyear. The sculptures were auctioned in October to raise funds for Bristol Children's Hospital. In addition a number of smaller Gromit sculptures were distributed to schools and community groups to decorate. Bristol tourism staff have estimated that Gromit Unleashed could bring as much as £58 million to the city during the two-month display, with many visitors expected from the United States and  Japan, where Wallace and Gromit are popular. The local media reported on the use of a new word "Gromiting", being used on social media sites to describe the search for the sculptures. Vandalism. Due to the openness of the outdoor sculptures in the trail, they were vulnerable to vandalism. In total, five sculptures were vandalised during the exhibition: Auction. After the trail had finished, all of the Gromit statues were collected and displayed together at a marquee at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, which attracted more than 25,000 visitors. On 3 October 2013 the 81 statues, alongside 11 smaller statues, were  auctioned off at a special event hosted by Sotheby's auctioneer and TV presenter Tim Wonnacott at the marquee. Wonnacott was paid to host the auction, to some criticism, as it was a charitable event. The pressure group Fathers 4 Justice were reportedly banned from bidding on one statue, "Hero", over claims that it would use the statue for publicising their campaign if they won it. The pre-auction estimate for the grand total was £1 million; this was exceeded after the 39th statue was sold. Every statue also exceeded the reserve price of £10,000. The Gromit which  attracted the highest bid was Gromit Lightyear, designed by Disney Pixar and based on the Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear which sold for £65,000. The grand total raised from the sale of the sculptures was £2,357,000. Impact and legacy. The sale of the Gromit statues, app downloads and merchandise initially raised £2.3million for Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal.The money was spent on lifesaving medical equipment and products to enhance patient comfort at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, during its planned expansion. An intraoperative MRI scanner was bought for the hospital using the funds, which  the hospital previously did not have. Gromit Unleashed’s financial success led organisers to plan a sequel almost immediately after the trail finished. David Sproxton, the chair of Aardman Animations, suggested that a trail involving Shaun the Sheep, another Wallace and Gromit character, could be “rolled out nationally... or even internationally”. This idea developed into the Shaun in the City sculpture trail, which was held in Bristol in the summer of 2015. A sequel for Gromit Unleashed was unleashed in 2018 which features sculpture statues of Gromit, Wallace on a life-size bench, and Feathers McGraw.