BURY has been successful in its bid for £2.3 million of National Lottery funding to establish an ambitious Irwell Way Sculpture Trail.

The award is by far the biggest lottery grant for public art that has been made.

The award of £2,316,730 will enable the Irwell Sculpture Trail Partnership to create an environmental art trail of 50 art works over the next five years along 30 miles of the Irwell Valley Way from central Manchester to the Pennines.

Altogether the 50 art works will consist of eight commissions, 33 artists in residence, three graduate design competitions and six community projects.

The project will create a tourist attraction complementing existing regeneration of the Irwell Valley.

The partnership consists of Bury Council, Lancashire County Council, Rossendale Council and Salford City Council.

Tony Trehy, Bury council's arts development officer, said: "The partnership is thrilled to have received this lottery award which will enable us to bring art into the areas covered by the Irwell Valley.

"Experiencing the sculpture trail will enable people to engage in the process of art in public spaces.

"The artists will spend time working with schools and communities and this will serve to educate young people that artists are useful as well as creative." Cllr John Byrne, Bury council leader, said: "Similar projects have proved highly successful and advantageous and we are very optimistic about the benefits and improvements to the environment that ours will bring."

Other schemes, such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, have attracted as many as 500,000 visitors a year.

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