Race is on for new sculpture
The race is on to fire thousands of carefully shaped bricks to form a sculpture outside a revamped community centre in Sandwell.
Renowned artist Gwen Hinney created the sculpture for the entrance of the recently refurbished Basshouse Community Centre in Smethwick this week using 14,000 wet clay bricks.
The artwork was built at The Pump House, off Rolfe Street, and it spells out the letters 'brass' before a sculpture of a house. It is 20 ft long and 5 ft high.
But following completion, the sculpture was pulled apart to each individual brick and has now been transported by barge along the canal to be picked up by a lorry and delivered to Ibstock Brick Limited in Leicester.
There each brick will be fired to solid stone before being brought to to the centre and rebuilt as an entrance wall.
Ms Hinney, a senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, said: "It is an exciting project. For the past three months I've been working hard to set up the sculpture, now its all apart and the race is on to get it fired so we can return it to its original shape."
Ms Hinney, who lives in Welshpool, has already designed many art projects in the area, including the youth shelter at Penn Island in Wolverhampton.
The Brasshouse Community Centre was recently given a ravamp following £780,000 in lottery funding.
As well as a new entrance sculpture, the centre has a new reception area with a cafe and social space.
