Rosherville Year 6 Pupils are ‘Born to be Wild’

On Thursday 13th July 2023, Rosherville’s year 6 pupils involved in the designing of the ‘Born to Be Wild’ Playground art installation, at Keepmoat’s new Cable Wharf development, went down to the ‘Bear Pit’ to see their vision bought to life.

The initial design by the artists NEON was shown to the children during the 2020 COVID lockdown during an online workshop where they spoke to the children about their opinions and gained the pupil’s input, which eventually resulted in a more curvaceous design and furthering the ‘wild’ element.

NEON felt it was important to make sure the spirit of the local children, who would potentially live in the new development, be seen throughout their installation. As well,  the intention was to pay homage to the grade 2 listed bear pit that sits under the sculpture, NEON explained, “We wanted to encourage the public to act like bears in the wild, climbing under and over the sculpture like bears would in the trees in the wild. It Provokes thinking of our relationships to the world and how we relate to animals in a playful way.”

The children had a great time climbing and exploring the interactive artwork that they helped to design. One of the year 6 children said “I think it’s amazing, it’s going to be here for several generations to come, it’s amazing to be the first people to see it, it is an honour.”

Afterward, an official photographer with Keepmoat came to capture the children in the space, for an official press release of the installation.