OWL SPONSORS

85 super-sized, interactive owls have been sponsored so far. A few are still available, but not for long, so reserve your owl today, before they all fly the nest!

The Minerva's Owls of Bath 2018 interactive sculpture trail will be swooping into Bath from 25th June until mid-September for the region's first interactive sculpture trail.

The high profile, public art event will bring colour and fun to the streets, increase footfall to Bath, boost trade for local businesses and bring a smile to the faces of Owl fans of all ages!

The free, three month event will encourage people to explore parts of the city they may never have been before.

The Owls of Bath app invites you to wake up all of the sleeping owls, which will be activated as you approach...  What a hoot!


Testing the Owls' interactive beacons with shoppers in SouthGate Bath 

Businesses and individuals are invited to sponsor Owlets on behalf of schools and charities for them to decorate.  Sponsors will be credited on the Owlet's plaque as well as on the event website, maps and Owls of Bath App.

Please email sponsors@minervasowls.org or phone Owl HQ on 01225 340697 for further details.  

We are delighted to welcome Bath Rugby’s new winger “Aled Bre-hoo” to the scrum of supersized owls this summer. The Bath Rugby owl is being decorated with the new 2018/19 strip and will be signed by the team for the Owls of Bath auction in October.

100% of profits from the Owls of Bath event will be donated to four local charities.  70% to the new holistic RUH Cancer Centre and the remainder shared between the Bath Young Carers Centre, the Roman Baths Archway Project and the UK Little Owl Project, which is based in Bath.

GWR has sponsored two owls.  One for display at Paddington and the other, the GWR Community Rail Owl, will be displayed outside Bath Spa station to welcome residents and visitors to the city as they arrive at the World Heritage city.

 

 

LAST WEEK TO SPONSOR YOUR OWL!

If you would like an Owl or Owlet for your business, school or charity, decorated to a design of your choice and displayed at your premises or a prime central Bath location, please email sponsors@minervasowls.org or phone Nest HQ at 01225 340697 ASAP for details.  There are just 2 owls available...

Owl sponsorship can be shared by several businesses and the 'Early Bird' rate remains, so hop on board today!

Each owl will contain an interactive beacon.  As people approach your owl, its photo, your logo and link to your website will pop up on their phones, including questions about your owl and special offers.  Not just wise owls, but smart too!

The smaller Owlets are 75cms high and can be sponsored by anyone on behalf of schools, community groups and charities to decorate. who will own their owl at the end of the event as a legacy of the project.

100% of Owls of Bath event proceeds will be donated to local charities.

 

A big hoot-out to Owls of Bath Sponsors

A huge hoot-out thank you to Owls of Bath Headline Sponsor SouthGate Bath and to Gold Sponsors Curo,  MHA Monahans, The Percent Club, Bath BID, Norland College, Allen Ford and Yewtrade for their generous support of the Minerva's Owls of Bath sculpture trail, without whom the event would not be possible.

An enormous feather-clapping thank you to all of our Owl sculpture sponsors and of course all our amazing artists!  We can't wait to see all your owls as they take shape, which have now started flying back to Nest HQ, ready for installation for the event launch on Monday 25th June.  Soooooo exciting!

To bag yourself an owl for this summer's high profile, city-wide event, please email sponsors@minervasowls.org or phone Nest HQ on 01225 340697.

Sponsorship includes:

  • A super-sized Owl sculpture decorated to a design of your choice
  • Your Owl displayed at your business or a prime central Bath location
  • An interactive beacon in your Owl sending information, including your logo & weblink to people's phones as they approach
  • Your business featured in approx 20,000 printed Owl Trail maps, 10,000 auction preview brochures, Owl App and website
  • 6 months of PR and vast amounts of social media content
  • Engage your staff, clients and the public through this feel-good, creative event for Bath
  • Benefit from association with ‘feel good’ stories in the media, internal communications and trade publications.
  • Help increase footfall to Bath and boost trade for local businesses
  • Raise much needed funds for local charities through the auction of their sculpture at the end of the project.
  • Bring smiles to the faces of people of all ages.
  • Have a hoot!

The owl sculptures will be sponsored by a wide range of regional businesses and organisations.

Sponsors will enjoy 9 months of PR and media coverage, plus excellent staff/customer engagement and CSR opportunities, from the event launch in February to the charity auction in October.

Owl sponsorship can be shared between several business or groups of traders.

Sculpture trails – Economic Impact

Sculpture trails not only raise millions of pounds for local charities, but also have a significant city-wide economic impact.

  • ‘Gromit Unleashed’ saw 1.18m visitors over the 10-week display period, of which 900,000 visited specifically to see the Gromit sculptures.
  • The ‘Great North Snowdogs’ trail in Tyne and Wear, attracted 676,000 visitors over the 10 weeks of the project, contributing an additional £7.2m to the local economy. 25% of visitors took in the entire trail and 35% spent six or more days completing it. 64% visited somewhere new in the city whilst following the trail.
  • Birmingham’s Great Western Mall saw a 25% increase in visitor numbers compared to the previous year.
  • During the Norwich elephant trail, Pret a Manger reported a 16% increase in sales, based on their sponsorship of an elephant.
  • On the first day of Pride of Northampton, an additional 25,211 visitors were recorded in the main shopping street, compared to the same day the previous year.
  • Sainsbury’s Colchester saw dwell time double while shoppers and visitors looked for giraffes.
  • Footfall to Bristol’s Museums doubled.
  • The main Northampton shopping centre recorded an 18% increase in footfall during the lion sculpture trail and other local business reported an increased turnover of 14%.
  • A 20% increase in sales was reported by Jarrolds Department Store in Norwich, attributed to people visiting their sponsored sculpture.
Figures courtesy of Wild In Art Ltd

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“It was with sheer delight that I rounded a corner on my first ever visit to … where they were filming Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and saw a line of big, grey, fluffy, bewildered-looking owls blinking back at me.” JK Rowling

In 2008, a herd of 100 King Bladud’s Pigs descended on Bath to take part in one of the UK’s first public art sculpture trails.

Owls do not have spherical eyes, they have tube eyes (providing better depth perception and allowing them to see prey from great distances. Their close vision is not as clear.)

In 2008 the King Bladud’s Pigs auction raised over £200,000 for charity and 16,000 pig fans came to say their ‘final farewells’.

Little Owls love sunbathing! You can spot them basking in sunshine on their favourite perches during the winter months in parks and rural villages. On a sunny day, look out for Little Owls on barn roofs, poles and fence posts.

My pet owl will soon turn 180.
He’s not old, he just has a bad neck. (Hoot!)

Many owls have asymmetrical ears that vary in size and are at different heights on their heads. This allows them to better pinpoint where their prey is.

For 2008’s King Bladud’s Pig trail 40,000 trail maps led pig fans on a city-wide journey of exploration.

You can find Little Owls in a range of habitats including quarries, villages, orchards, parkland, liveries and on lowland farmland. They prefer semi-open habitat and avoid woodland. Read Emily’s Little Owl Spotter’s Guide here.

The Little Owl has a large global range and is found in 84 countries (much of Europe, Asia east to Korea, North Africa, and the Middle East).

A Little Owl with an olive branch appeared on a Greek silver tetradrachm coin from 500 BC and a 5th Century BC bronze statue of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, shows her holding a Little Owl.

There are around 200 species of owl.
The largest is Blakiston’s fish owl (Japan, China, Siberia)

Headline sponsor – SouthGate Bath

Gold sponsors