The year of the Ram has arrived in Derby later as part of a year-long, city-wide celebration of innovation and making.
Organisers of the Derby Ram Trail, a new public art trail featuring 30 uniquely decorated ram sculptures, have let the brightly coloured, individually decorated sculptures loose on the city’s streets.
Set to run thought to 22 August 2021, a flock of five-foot high ram sculptures – celebrating the close association between the city and an ancient mythical beast – has sprung up as part of a new free, walkable art sculpture trail.
And a new smartphone app has also launched, guiding users around the 30-piece tour to reveal information about each design and its sponsor. The ‘quest-like’ app will allow visitors to digitally ‘collect’ and interact with the Rams along the way.
Derby Museums, in partnership with Wild in Art, is bringing the Derby Ram Trail to the city, and artists have been busy painting their models inside an empty unit in the Derbion Shopping Centre ahead of the trail opening.
The five-foot-high fibreglass sculptures are made in the shape of Derby’s mythical ram – which, according to legend, was 10 yards high with enormous horns and a huge flowing fleece.
No animal is more closely associated with any city, as the ram is to Derby. Walk anywhere in the city, and you will spot a statue, a plaque, a radio station or an entire football club, which has put its name alongside that of an animal of almost mythical proportions. The origins of Derby’s Ram are believed to stretch back as far as the 16th century.
The Ram Trail is just part of a year-long celebration of ‘300 years of making’ across Derby, marking its remarkable creative and manufacturing history that helped make the city one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution.
Last month sees the opening of the new innovative Museum of Making in Derby at The Silk Mill, the site of what is widely regarded as the world’s first modern factory. Completing a triple celebration, the Museum – which welcomed its first visitors from Friday 21 May 2021 – opens during the 300th anniversary of The Silk Mill, and the 20th anniversary of the Derwent Valley Mills becoming a World Heritage Site.
Along with the opening of the Museum, and the launch of the Ram Trail, Derby will also play host to a summer concert with music inspired by engineering, science and technology.
For full details on the Ram Trail, visit https://derbyramtrail.org
For tourist information about Derby, and for the latest updates on what’s open, see www.visitderby.co.uk