Darwin Fiasco – The Big Dedication

On Thursday last week the local council held a big dedication ceremony for the Charles Darwin Quantum Leap artwork in the town centre which has been dubbed locally as “The Shropshire Slinky.”

Gathered were the planners, council members, former council members and a host of dignitaries including the honourable Mayor and Mayoress of Shrewsbury. They were joined by the band from Shrewsbury School who performed a classical piece written by one of their students and a direct descendant of Charles Darwin who gave a speech dedicating the art installation to his proud ancestor.

Not everything was as well as it seems though, many local residents in the town passed negative comment on the art installation as well as the expenditure and health and safety problems that the sculpture poses.

I am not fan of the project, I am on public record saying as such. After I received phone calls from a group of local people who thought that the ceremony showed yet more spending on the ever spiralling costs of this project, I decided to go along with a small group of interested people and my “Origin of What?” banner to see what reaction the public had to the event. I kept the group small because of the obvious health and safety problems posed by the projects location next to a busy road through the town.

I found that the general feeling from the public to the project was a negative one and not just on the case of they did not like the art. The majority of people objected to the location and the amount of money being spend on the piece which matches my personal view on the project.

I am the first to point out that art is art and that by definition not everyone will like it or appreciate it but I am glad to see that the matter of taste is not the issue that the people of Shrewsbury have with the Quantum Leap but the cost.

I was shocked to hear a few of the invited dignitaries discussing the installation and asking the question what the council is going to do to stop children and toddlers trying to climb it.

Darwin Fiasco

Back in June 2009 I wrote about a new art installation in the town centre to commemorate the life and work of one of Shrewsbury’s most famous residents Charles Darwin, author of “The Origin of the Species” and one of the most prolific figures of the past 200 years.

Today I asked the local council not to spend any more money on the Charles Darwin Quantum Leap art project. The response that I received from them was that they had no choice but to give the extra £100,000 to finish the art installation because they had to honour the liabilities left to them by the now defunct Tory controlled SABC.

I feel that the arts should be funded in the community but I believe that this installation has been a fiasco from start to well, its not even finished yet and that there are better ways to commemorate the life and work of Charles Darwin other than an abstract art installation that is sinking into the river.

I am now asking for people to assemble in front of this art installation tomorrow afternoon at 3pm (weather permitting of course) to voice their opinions on the excessive funding black hole of a project. A banner saying “THE ORIGIN OF WHAT” will also be displayed.