Lincolnshire's St Barnabas Hospice is celebrating its 40th birthday this summer with the introduction of the county's largest-yet street art trail – and the help of Lincolnshire Freemasons.
It's the bespoke HeART Trail which will run during the summer of 2023 across Lincolnshire – and it's a first of its kind because it will take public art to every town in the county in which the Hospice has a physical presence, including Louth, Grantham, Spalding, Boston, and Gainsborough as well as Lincoln, and Skegness, which has its busiest months over the summer, offering publicity to a much wider audience.
Hearts will appear on the trail in all of those locations on June 10th and will remain in place until early September thanks to a range of sponsors, led by five 'Presenting Partners' including Lincolnshire Freemasons, as well as Jacksons Workwear Rentals, Chestnut Homes, Branston, and Daniel Charles Construction.
Caroline Swindin, Fundraising Development Manager at St Barnabas Hospice, said:
'It only seems fitting we expand the trail to cover key areas including Skegness and the coast where tourism is at an all-time high in the summer months; it's a significant injection of trade after almost two years of disturbance because of the pandemic.
Hearts are our chosen sculpture because ‘people are at the HEART of all that we do’, one of our values is ‘Having Heart’ and our emblem is also a heart. Hearts will adorn our streets, embellished, painted, sculptured from an array of materials bringing joy to all who see them.'
Lincolnshire Freemasons' Provincial Grand Master Dave Wheeler said:
'Lincolnshire Freemasons’ decision to be a Presenting Partner for the 2023 HeART Trail reinforces our long-term commitment to the Hospice movement in general and St Barnabas Hospice in particular.
Our support for the hospice movement is, by extension, support for all those people in our communities whose lives are touched by its services; not only those suffering terminal illnesses, but also their families and friends, which clearly includes our own members.
In this way, the money invested in being a Presenting Partner is an investment in making some of life’s most difficult times a little more tolerable.
For that reason, the St Barnabas Hospice choice of the heart as the artwork to symbolise its ongoing commitment to dignity and compassion in the end of life care is especially appropriate in the year of its 40th anniversary, and our Province is delighted to be associated with it'
