CITYIST

THE CITYist

CITY SUCCESS

Bristol Sport Foundation, which aims to develop and coordinate the delivery of community sport in Bristol and beyond, has teamed up with Aardman and Netflix as they release their new animated musical short, Robin Robin.

Robin Robin is a beautiful 30-minute festive short, created by directors Dan Ojari and Mike Please. When her egg fortuitously rolls into a rubbish dump, Robin is raised by a loving family of burglar mice. As she grows up, her differences become more apparent. Robin sets off on a heist to end all heists, to prove to her family that she can be a really good mouse – but ends up discovering who she really is.

The stop-motion animation was produced at the Aardman studios in Bristol and was launched on 24 November on Netflix. It features the voices of Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant, Adeel Akhtar and Bronte Carmichael.

Thanks to this unique partnership with Aardman and Netflix, the Bristol Sport Foundation will be able to deliver its Bristol Flyers Health Squad programme to six Greater Bristol primary schools all based in areas of high deprivation. More than 350 children will receive the weekly health and well-being lessons, running into Christmas; teaching them valuable lifeskills alongside fun basketball sessions.

At the conclusion of the six-week programme, 30 children will be invited to attend a Health Squad Christmas Holiday Hub at Ashton Gate Stadium, where they will learn to cook the pudding that features in Robin Robin, from a recipe devised by chef and activist, Jack Monroe.

My BRISTOL

Meet the founder of Legs4Africa, Tom Williams

I always knew Bristol was a hub for

international development organisations so when Legs4Africa started blossoming, I knew I needed to be surrounded by like-minded people, so I moved down here from the Midlands.

I've found it hard to be bored in Bristol (apart from once or twice during lockdown); there is always something interesting to do. What's really special for me is what's happening in the daytime –outdoor activities such as climbing, cycling or hiking are my go-tos these days, and there are just loads of opportunities for that.

Legs4Africa started as a random act of kindness

back in 2013, when I managed to get a chap from The Gambia a new prosthetic leg following a visit there. Seeing this man walk again and witnessing how it impacted his family and community touched me deeply, so I set about rescuing unwanted prosthetic legs from anywhere I could find them. Luckily I had few friends that wanted to get involved, and people in the prosthetics industry liked what I was doing, so that first leg soon turned into many.

In the early days, I would personally dismantle

the legs, but a few years ago we started working with groups of retired men around Bristol to dismantle them for us. These groups are called Mens Sheds, and I absolutely love what they do to help retired men keep busy and connected with their community. We are now receiving and dismantling enough legs to support eight mobility centres across six sub-Saharan countries.

Our recent campaign, Leg Up, is the brainchild

of our fundraising manager Evie Dickinson and has been launched to bolster the projects that we're running in The Gambia. It's a matchfunded campaign meaning all public donations are doubled, which is obviously incredible. There has been a focus on The Gambia since we began, and we can see that a lot more still needs to be done to support people with limb differences there. Our projects involve supporting the country's only mobility centre by providing training and prosthetic legs, offering outreach services, peer support, and counselling to help people through the trauma of limb loss. Our target is to raise £100,000 by Christmas Eve. It's the biggest fundraiser we've ever tried to do, and we've had tons of support from Paralympians and other influential people with limb differences. means developing more robust relationships with suppliers and clinics in the UK and overseas and streamlining our supply chains. Our partners in France are currently sailing a boat of prosthetic components that they've collected over the last 18 months to the clinic in The Gambia, which opens up a conversation about ethical and sustainable transport.

The dedicated retired men from Mens Sheds

that crack on with dismantling the legs that arrive from around the country definitely deserve a shoutout. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to recycle 10,000 legs and make such a positive impact on so many people’s lives.

Recently, I've been thoroughly enjoying reading

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez. It's a charming book of short stories. The Blind Boy podcast is hilarious, and they also talk a lot about mental health and other major societal challenges we're facing right now.

I love going to the new veggie or vegan

restaurants that seem to be popping up more and more around town. OM Burger on Glouchester Road recently tickled my taste buds.

If I could have dinner with anyone dead or

alive, it would have to be one of my early ancestors, ideally from a few thousand years ago; it would be interesting for a few reasons but mainly because I would appreciate it if someone brought me back from the dead way into the future.

My philosophy is to leave this beautiful little

planet, having given more than I have received.

• Follow @legs4africa on Instagram and Twitter and donate to the Leg Up campaign via the website: legs4africa.org

A flag from one of the biggest ships in the Royal Navy is to hang permanently in Bristol Cathedral. A special ceremony is set to take place to mark the links between the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and the maritime city of Bristol. Crew members from the ship will parade the flag into the cathedral, accompanied by a Royal Marine Corps of Drums, on 12 December at 3.30pm as part of the historic Evensong service. The flag will then be blessed and will hang permanently in the cathedral marking the affiliation between the city and the vessel as it patrols the world as a national strategic defence asset. Military flags “laid up” in this way are permanently displayed and buried in consecrated ground if they disintegrate over time.

The blessing of the White Ensign, which traditionally flies on Royal Navy ships, will be the ceremonial highlight of a weekend visit to their home port by the Commanding Officer of HMS Prince of Wales Captain Steve Higham and around 30 of the crew.

HMS Prince of Wales is one of the Royal Navy’s fifth generation aircraft carriers, one of the most powerful surface warships ever constructed in the UK and has a projected lifespan of 50 years. In 2022 she will lead the NATO carrier strike force in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Her flight deck is 70 metres wide and 280 metres long – enough space for three football pitches – and she can hold 45 days’ worth of food in stores. She has a minimum crew of around 700, increasing to around 1,600 with aircraft onboard.

During the weekend visit to Bristol the captain and crew will be meeting Bristol business and civic leaders, including a formal meal on board SS Great Britain and crew members will be taking part in gig races with Bristol Gig Club on Bristol’s Floating Harbour.

• bristol-cathedral.co.uk/whats-on/white-ensign

STUDENT WINS AT INTERNATIONAL AWARDS

A University of the West of England MA student has won two prizes in the British Ecological Society’s annual photography competition, Capturing Ecology, which celebrates the diversity of ecology across the planet. Alicia Hayden, who joined UWE Bristol’s MA Wildlife Filmmaking course in September, took top spot in the Up Close and Personal category and also won the Art of Ecology student prize. In the Up Close and Personal category, Alicia’s photograph, titled Beautiful Bryophyte, displays the intricacy of moss growing on a wall in Cornwall; looking like something from a tropical rainforest it shows how there is beauty in the smallest of living things. Spotlight, Alicia’s photograph of a spider repairing its web, with the streetlamp highlighting the movement of its legs, was awarded the student prize in the Art of Ecology category; it illustrates the urban wildlife which is not usually acknowledged. Alicia said: “Working in the wildlife film industry has been an aspiration of mine since I was around 12, as I love the idea of combining my love of the arts with the sciences –and using my skills to tell stories about the natural world, and inspire people to protect it.” The independent judging panel included six highly respected photographers including eminent ecologists and award-winning wildlife photographers. Among them was Laura Dyer, a South African-born wildlife photographer, who has an affinity for animal portraits.

Laura said: “Wildlife and nature photography is so vital today, as it helps to showcase parts of the natural world which would otherwise remain hidden from the view of most of us. And it is only by seeing the beauty of nature that we will be inspired to protect and conserve it.”

CROSS-CONTINENT COLLABORATION

Fluorescent Smogg – a print and production house based in Bristol –is proud to present Chikyu (Earth), a 21 colour screen print from Japanese artist Taku Obata.

Taku is a multidisciplinary artist spanning sculpture, painting and print making. With his playful approach, Taku transitions seamlessly between figurative and abstract styles with compositions inspired by history, nature and culture. Fusing traditional Japanese techniques with contemporary arts practice, he forges dynamic and surprising compositions, the largest of which is this production with Fluorescent Smogg.

Speaking about the silkscreen prints, Taku said: “This edition of 21 colour silkscreen prints was very exciting to make; I've never seen a silkscreen print of this scale with so many layers. I visited the print studio and was very surprised and impressed at the printing technology and machinery. To enhance the edition, I have also hand finished 10 copies to make this part of the edition completely unique.”

Fluorescent Smogg, which was set up by UK artist Sickboy said: “Taku's mark making is totally unique and for us, an almost direct translation of his sculptural 2D work process. With this release we want to capture his mark making as closely as possible. To achieve that we utilised cutting edge technology within printmaking to edition an original piece of Taku's work at a 1:1 scale. The detail in the reproduction is truly incredible and we're proud to say that this looks more like an original than anything we've created before.”

• fluorescentsmogg.com