Morph’s Epic Art Adventure in London – the first accessible, step-free cultural event of its kind – has opened – with official creative partner Kids Industries (KI) in full attendance with Whizz-Kidz, Wild in Art, and Aardman – the award-winning animation studio and creator of the childhood-favourite and much-loved animated character, Morph.
The public art trail and tourist attraction features 56 life-sized Morphs on the streets of central London, located at some of its most iconic landmarks including St Pauls, Tate Modern, Tower of London, Shakespeare’s Globe and Borough Market.
As creative partner, KI has been collaborating with Whizz-Kidz to bring this epic event to life. This has involved designing and producing a plethora of materials (trail app, website, map, guidebook and dedicated social media channels) for both the run-up to the event and for the trail itself – to enable visitors to navigate the route, track down each sculpture and unlock fun facts and rewards.
Whizz-Kidz is embarking on this fun, fully accessible trail across London to raise awareness of the needs for young wheelchair users to be mobile, enabled and included in society, and to raise vital funds to support their work.
The money raised will enable the charity to provide life-changing wheelchairs and confidence-building opportunities for young wheelchair users in the capital and across the UK. The Morph sculptures are canvases for conversations about diversity and inclusion for wheelchair users.
Each of the Morph sculptures stands at six ft tall and is adorned with bespoke designs from a range of artists, supported by sponsors including Sky, Barratt Developments, EY, Kids Industries, Evenbreak, and Govia Thameslink Railway. Once the trail has closed, each of the bespoke Morph sculptures will be auctioned with the aim of raising £500,000 for Whizz-Kidz.
Whizz-Kidz chief executive Sarah Pugh said, “We are delighted to launch Morph’s Epic Art Adventure in London. This accessible and fun trail will bring the London business community, creative artists, schools and families together in the summer of 2023. The awareness and money raised will have a huge legacy for young wheelchair users we support for years to come.”
Aardman co-founder and Morph’s creator Peter Lord said, “We are totally thrilled to be working with the excellent charity Whizz-Kidz on London’s first step-free art trail. I’m sure that local residents and visitors to London – young and old – will also be inspired to get creative and join Morph for an Epic Art Adventure.”
Ki CEO and co-founder Gary Pope said, “We are super excited to support the important work Whizz-Kidz does as the official creative partner on such an important project – giving our time and resources to make this a huge success! The work that Whizz-Kidz does is incredible. Morph is incredible. London is incredible. Mashing the three together is pure genius – of course we wanted to be involved! After a year of work on this project, it’s thrilling to see the trail come to life and see first-hand how more children are able experience the epic-ness of London through a truly accessible adventure.”