Towards the end of last month, I wrote a post on a fundraising effort called ‘Back the Bull’. It was organised by the Christchurch Art Gallery Trust with the aim of raising $NZ 200,000 towards the cost of purchasing this glorious creature, “Chapman’s Homer”, for our city.
Chapman’s Homer
I was ever so pleased ( as in, dance-around-the-room-and-shout-with -glee-pleased ) to read in this morning’s newspaper that the ‘Back the Bull’ campaign achieved its target last night.
This means the Bull is here to stay!!
The Bull, Chapman’s Homer, was on display (on loan) during the fundraising but is now in storage. Eventually the 1.8 tonne sculpture will have a permanent home on the forecourt of the Christchurch Art Gallery. That will be in 2015 when the earthquake repair and strengthening work on the Gallery is completed and it is once again open to the public. In the meantime, the sculpture will be displayed from time to time at yet to be determined sites in Christchurch.
I am very glad that the campaign was a success because it shows that, if we put our hearts into working together, we can do wonders for our broken city. This was yet another positive action to counteract the negativity and arguing and crankiness that seems to jaywalk, unhelpfully, through the city’s new design and rebuild plans.
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that is a magnificent work of art! bravo!
It is; we love it.
This is awesome.
It is!
Great news, as you people wanted it ! I celebrate everything and anything with you …. good excuse to have a cake, 🙂 so I jump up and down with you!
Oh yes, let’s eat cake! What shall we bake?
You are the wonderful baking person… have you ever tried lemonade cake… used to be one of my favourites.. and the children used to love it!
No, I haven’t. Ginger ale fruit cake I know, but not lemonade cake. Sounds delicious. I have eaten lemonade apples; they are wonderful 🙂
Awesome!!
Yep!
Yeah! I’m glad that the fundraising effort was a success. The bull is awesome.
It is awesome. What I also find awesome is that the fundraising campaign was only 6 weeks long and, in such a short time, it was successful.
Yea!!!! Congratulations!! I am glad to hear this news.
It’s wonderful. Thanks for sharing in my excitement 🙂
Happy for you!
Thank you 🙂
The piano lover in me should be unhappy about a hefty bull standing on it BUT as you say there is something magnificent about this piece…..I need to contemplate this a bit more.
Great news for you all and one day I will take the camera and take some pictures of the Porirua bull sculpture to share with you all.
Oh, please do. I would love to see the Porirua Bull. As I have mentioned before, I don’t truly understand the meaning of the Bull on the Piano but I believe the symbolism of the piano has connections to the symbolism of the piano in The Piano (which I also didn’t truly understand :D). But I can tell you that ,when you see the piano sculpture, you feel certain that you could lift up the lid and play a tune; it’s that realistic! Another blogger told me about bull sculptures in Connecticut. They are magnificent too. http://www.woytuk.com/archives/gallery/the-new-york-sculptures/ You may like to check out Mr Woytuk’s work . He sculpts a very fine Kiwi.
I am celebrating! These are the moments that encourage an entire community!!! 🙂
They absolutely do!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Hurray !!! positive actions will add up and feed into more positive actions 🙂
I think so, too.
Wonderful news!
It is, it is !!!
Congratulation for the Bull and for your city and yourself!
Thank you. It was a huge sum of money for our smallish city to raise. If everyone contributes whatever they can to a project, it all adds up to make a huge difference.
Yay for the bull! I can understand the importance of investing in something so solid for a city that has been so shaken…
Solid it is, Heather. Magnificently solid. For some reason, it also make me smile to think that this huge ‘beast’ has traversed the world and admired the wonders of Venice and Paris and now come home to pasture. Incongruous, a little bizarre and yet, for me, somehow, so right.
I have always heard that New Zealanders are some of the world’s greatest travellers–so perhaps he was preparing for his forever home?
I think you have that ‘spot on’, Heather!
That is no mean feat to have achieved that target! The city should be proud of itself for sure…
Seems funny to be excited over a Bull, but I really am. It was a great effort. What can We ,The People, do next????
Congratulations my friend! I’m happy the campaign was successful and you’ll be able to enjoy the bull also in the future.
To hear that news this morning made my day. It’s hard to explain how significant something like this is in our current situation.
I think I can understand.
Thank you, good friend 🙂
Congratulations–job well done by your town.
I am so happy about it. Apparently there were global contributions too which is heart-warming.
Woo Hoo!!!!!
Yes, indeed!