Get ready for the summer of the owl in Chichester and Arundel!

SussexWorld

It’s going to be a fabulously fun and colourful summer in Chichester and Arundel as 30 big and 30 small owl sculptures swoop into town, providing a free day out for the entire family.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and there's

00:06something incredibly special, truly exciting and wonderfully colourful that is going to

00:10be happening in Arundel in Chichester this summer from July the 10th. It's going to be

00:15the Big Hoot, 30 large, beautifully painted, beautifully decorated owls and 30 smaller

00:22ones and it's all in aimed at Chestnut Tree House. Now Becky Jupp is Chief Operating Officer

00:28at Chestnut Tree House. This is going to be fantastic isn't it? It's going to be so wonderfully

00:32colourful and special and exciting isn't it? Oh it's going to be amazing, we can't wait.

00:38We are so excited that as you said from the 10th of July there are going to be 30 owls

00:44swooping in to Chichester and Arundel to really brighten up the streets and give families

00:50and the public something to go and visit over the summer holidays. It's going to be very

00:55special. And in both locations you can download an app or get a trail map and do the lot in

01:01one go can't you? And just tick them off, make sure you can get started. Yeah, absolutely.

01:06So you can walk around the trails, as you said there'll be a map that you can pick up,

01:10there'll be an app that you can download and you can go and explore both towns and cities

01:16and go and find the owls. They will be all over the place, some will be very obvious

01:20to find, others will be hidden away a little bit more, but you can go around and collect

01:25them all. So we challenge you to go and find all 30 of them.

01:28That sounds fantastic. Now it's an established formula isn't it? The artists and the organisation

01:34behind it and the charity partner. But you've chosen the animal, you've chosen the owl,

01:39which has significance doesn't it for Chestnut Tree House? What's the significance behind

01:44the owl?

01:46So Chestnut Tree House is the children's hospice for West and East Sussex and South East Hampshire

01:51and it is based in a beautiful piece of countryside just outside of Arandor and part of the grounds

01:59that it's on is a very special woodland walk for us. So we have a woodland walk that the

02:04children and the young people can come and visit. It's fully accessible and the kids

02:09love being in the woods. They love playing in the mud kitchen, talking about the fairies,

02:14the squirrels and the woodland creatures that are around. We very often have deer in

02:21the gardens and quite often owls. So we decided to pick an owl for that particular reason

02:26so that actually we can really talk to the children and young people that we look after

02:32about what we're doing and they can understand why we picked the owl and hopefully we'll

02:36end up with our very own owl in the grounds that they can look at.

02:39It's going to be fabulous. I remember seeing the Winchester and Southampton Rabbits, I

02:44think it was the year before last, and they were so spectacular. But it's worth stressing

02:48that there is a really serious, really important purpose behind all this, isn't it? And you

02:53were talking about a real crisis in terms of fundraising for hospices generally. Tell

02:58me more.

02:59Yeah, so the whole hospice sector is unfortunately facing a little bit of a funding crisis at

03:04the moment. The children's hospice is no different from the adults' hospices in terms

03:10of the amounts of money it needs to raise. So it costs us around £5 million a year to

03:15run Chestnut Tree House and the services that we provide for around 250 families across

03:22the region is all provided for free. But only 17% of that £5 million comes from the government.

03:28So it's barely anything. The rest of the money we need to raise and we need to raise it from

03:34public donations, from help from our corporate partners, from our major donors. So it's a

03:40huge amount of money that the team is...

03:42And that must be a massive pressure on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to know that you've

03:47got to come up with this amount.

03:49Yes, it's a huge pressure. And particularly over the last couple of years, you know, we've

03:54come out of COVID where a lot of things have to be cancelled and moved and shops closed

03:59and coming out the back of that. And we've walked straight into an economic crisis where

04:03people are really feeling the cost of living and just simply don't have the money to give

04:08as they used to. So things like the big hoops and opportunities to try something different

04:13are so, so important because we desperately want to keep on providing the care that we

04:17are currently giving. But yeah, it is becoming an increasing challenge to find that money.

04:23So there's pressure on this, isn't there? But all the elements are there for a spectacular

04:28success, aren't there?

04:29Oh, absolutely.

04:31Possibly if it goes well, you're thinking perhaps six figures, if it goes really, really

04:35well.

04:36We hope so, yeah. We hope that we can raise as much money as possible. So at the end of

04:42the trail, there's going to be a farewell weekend on the 13th to the 15th of September.

04:47So that's taking place in Arundel. So that is your opportunity to go and buy a ticket

04:51to see all the owls stood together in the same place so you can see them all collectively.

04:56And then a couple of weeks later, we're going to be auctioning them off. So that is the

04:59opportunity for people to hopefully pay lots and lots of money for a unique sculpture that

05:05has been decorated by one of our artists. And then you can take it home and put it in

05:11your garden if you so wish.

05:12Sounds fantastic. And the really exciting thing is these owls are going to appear, well,

05:17overnight, aren't they? 9th, 10th day?

05:20Yes, a team of people ready to go out in the evening after dark to start placing the owls

05:29where they need to go. So, yes, we will all wake up on the 10th of July and find out where

05:34they all are. I don't even know where they are. The team haven't told me. So I will be

05:37going out.

05:38You will download your app, will you?

05:39I will do. Yes, absolutely.

05:41I bet you can't wait.

05:43I can't wait, no. And I'm really excited to take the family to go and have a look at

05:49them all.

05:50Fantastic. Well, really lovely to speak to you, Becky. Good luck with it. It's going

05:54to be fabulous, it really will.

05:55Thanks.

05:56Thank you.

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