Cambridge's third Wild in Art trail opens on 20 March 2027 with about 30 giant pandas. Schools can enter a cub for £750, and artists' designs are picked in September.
The companies paying for Cambridge’s giant panda trail were taken round the building site of the new children’s hospital this week. One of them has now spelled out what putting the sculptures on the streets will actually involve.
Panda Meander opens on 20 March 2027 and will be the city’s third Wild in Art sculpture trail. It is run by Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, the hospital charity, and the money goes to children’s services at Addenbrooke’s and to building Cambridge Children’s Hospital. (Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust)
One caution on the closing date. The charity’s press release of 20 August says the trail runs “from 20 March to 30 May 2027”. The trail’s own website and Wild in Art both give 29 May. Ten weeks from 20 March lands on 29 May, so treat the last weekend as the one to check nearer the time.
What will be on the streets
The sculptures are bigger than most people expect. Each giant panda stands 140 centimetres high and 100 centimetres wide, with a black and white head and a body painted to a local artist’s design. (Cambridge Children’s Hospital)
Numbers published so far:
- around 30 giant pandas on the route, described elsewhere by the project as between 30 and 40
- upwards of 30 cubs, designed by schools and community groups
- 40 sculpture sponsorships offered in the charity’s sponsor pack
The panda was not chosen at random. It stands for PaNDR, the Paediatric and Neonatal Decision Support and Retrieval Service, which the charity funds. PaNDR runs a 24-hour advice line for 17 hospitals across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex, and moves critically ill children to specialist centres and back again.
Shelly Thake, the charity’s chief executive, said it is “the first time a panda has appeared in a Wild in Art sculpture trail in a town or city anywhere in the world”.
What the money is for
Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Construction is due to start next year and building works are set to finish by the end of 2030. The charity says the East of England is the only region in the UK without a specialist children’s hospital.
The published specification is five floors containing:
- 108 inpatient beds
- 16 paediatric intensive care beds
- 42 day-case beds
- seven operating theatres
- imaging and diagnostics
- a hospital school
- a 5,000 square metre research institute
Rob Heuschkel, consultant paediatric gastroenterologist and clinical director for the project, described what changes for a family staying there. “They’ll be single rooms, areas to relax, meet your family and to talk to staff, so I think the spaces, the outside spaces, the eating together space, the school space, all of those things make a hospital stay much more normal.”
How to take part, and what it costs
The routes in are at different price points, and one of them has already closed.
- Artists. Applications for sculpture designs are closed. The trail says artists whose designs have been shortlisted will be told by email in mid September, after which sponsors choose from the shortlist. (Panda Meander)
- Schools, colleges and community groups. You design and decorate a panda cub for the trail. The charity asks each group to raise £750, which “covers the cost of your panda, installing it on the trail, and after being on public display, your panda will be returned back to you”. (Panda Meander)
- Businesses. Sculpture sponsorship is £7,000 plus VAT for one of 40 slots. It buys a name and logo on the plinth, the pick of a design from the shortlist, a place on the printed trail map and app, and invitations to the design selection event and the farewell gala auction. A sponsor can add a cub for a school for £750.
Enquiries for both the schools programme and sponsorship go to arttrail@act4addenbrookes.org.uk.
Who is behind it
The charity has now named its partners:
- Cheffins, Lead Trail Partner
- Cambridge BID, Business and Development Partner
- the Welch Group, Logistics Partner, which will store, transport and install the sculptures
- Huttie, App Sponsor
- the Cambridge Independent, Media Partner
- Whippet, Travel Partner
- Prologis, Schools and Community Group Partner
Bill King, Cheffins’ chairman, said the site visit “has only strengthened our resolve to push our fundraising efforts as far as we can”. Chris Welch, managing director of the Welch Group, was blunter about the job itself: “As logistics partner, we’ll be storing, transporting and helping site all the sculptures across Cambridge, which means a fair bit of careful overnight planning to get these gentle giants into position without anyone noticing until they’re ready to be seen.”
What the last trail did
The case the organisers make rests on 2021, when a herd of painted cows filled the city. The charity’s release calls it the Cows Across Cambridge art trail; Wild in Art’s own material for it used the name Cows about Cambridge. The figures the charity cites are:
- more than half a million people engaged with it
- 84% of visitors said it encouraged them to visit parts of Cambridge they had not previously explored
- £5.95 million in gross value added to the local economy
Those are the charity’s own numbers, and the 84% figure is the one worth watching. A trail’s value to a Cambridge business depends on whether it pulls people off the tourist spine of King’s Parade and Market Square and into the streets that need the footfall.
What it means for you
If you run a school, choir, scout group or youth club, the useful number is £750. That is the whole cost of getting a cub on the trail, and the sculpture comes back to you afterwards. There is no published closing date for the schools programme, so early contact is sensible if you want a place.
If you are an artist who missed the call, the next window is the cubs. The large sculpture designs are already closed. The Learning and Community Programme is a separate route, and it works through groups rather than individual commissions.
If you are planning a visit, put 20 March 2027 in the diary and check the end date later. The trail is free to walk. Ten weeks covers the Easter holidays and the early May bank holiday, and the sculptures are auctioned off at the end.
If you are a business weighing it up, ask for the sponsor pack rather than the headline. The £7,000 plus VAT covers a defined list of benefits. The trail is selling sponsorships on the strength of the 2021 economic figures above.
More things to do in and around the city are on our things to do in Cambridge page.
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