ARNOLD BENNETT STATUE UNVEILED

A statue celebrating Stoke-on-Trent’s most famous literary son has been unveiled – on what would have been his 150th birthday. The two metre high bronze sculpture of novelist, playwright and essayist Arnold Bennett was revealed to the public on 27th May. A host of guests and civic dignitaries, including Bennett’s grandson Denis Eldin, attended the unveiling outside the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley.

The statue was commissioned by the Arnold Bennett Society, funded by the Denise Coates Foundation and gifted to the city. Arnold Bennett Society vice-president Ray Johnson MBE said: “The statue is the culmination of very careful planning for a number of years, and we are thrilled that it is being unveiled on such an historic day.”

The Arnold Bennett society worked with local sculptors Michael Talbot and Carl Payne to create the statue and Horticon Ltd were engaged by Stoke City Council to construct the accessible plinth for the statue. Our works were carefully programmed with the artist to ensure there was sufficient time to install his sculpture before the opening. Mr Talbot, from Leek, said: “We’ve placed it at ground level so you can sit with it, have your photograph taken with it. It’s not elevated on a plinth in a traditionally superior way, it’s accessible to the public as he wrote about Stoke-on-Trent and the people of Stoke-on-Trent.”

Further details can be found on ITV News

TORVILL AND DEAN BOLERO STATUE PLANS UNVEILED

Plans for a statue of ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have been unveiled 30 years after the pair took Olympic gold in Sarajevo.

The pair, who are both from Nottingham, won gold in the 1984 Winter Olympics with their famous performance to Ravel’s Bolero.

Sculptor Carl Payne, who has produced a scale model of the work, said the time was right to celebrate them.

When complete, the life-size work will be placed at Nottingham’s Ice Centre.

The Olympic performance by Torvill and Dean made them the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time for a single performance

The Staffordshire-based sculptor said he is set to begin work on the full-size piece but is yet to secure any of the £80,000 needed.

Six appeal Mr Payne said: “We see so many public art pieces popping up overnight with no consensus from the public – nobody has asked for them and nobody likes them.

“I’m a sculptor who documents moments in history – so it tells a story and people feel part of it, I create a small working model – then I put it out there.”

The artist said he was going to “crack on regardless”, but was confident people would get involved and donate when the model goes on display at the ice centre.

The Olympic performance by Torvill and Dean made them the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time (for a single programme), receiving 12 perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s, which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge.