Croome is working with seven local community groups and schools to create a new winter trail, aided by artist MrASingh.

The groups will work alongside MrASingh to decorate seven large fibreglass bird sculptures, which will create a Christmas family sculpture trail called Seven Birds of Croome. Each bird will be placed in various locations across Croome’s incredible landscape for you to discover. 

If you’ve seen brightly coloured sculptures dotted around cities (Elephants in Worcester, Owls in Birmingham), it’s extremely likely you’ve seen MrASingh’s work. In this exciting new project MrASingh will be supporting some fantastic local community groups to decorate the sculptures including Worcester Carers, Hanley Castle School, The Girl Guides, Pershore Riverside Centre and the Monday Nite Club.  

With MrASingh’s guidance, the groups are responding to Croome’s theme of Looking Closely and the Thomas Bewick and Marcus Coates exhibitions on show in the House as they decorate the seven birds. You’ll be able to see how each local group brings colourful interpretations of the theme with their bird as you follow the trail in the wide-open space of Croome’s beautiful parkland. 

Talking about the project, MrASingh said; "I’m really looking forward to working with the team at Croome and the seven groups on this fantastic co-creation project. Having created over 40 public art sculptures, I’m hoping to inspire these incredible groups by sharing tips and tricks while encouraging them to unleash their creativity, and trust in their artistic abilities."

The Monday Night Club, who are one of the groups involved, said; "We are delighted to be a part of the Seven Birds of Croome project at Croome Court, a place we know and love. As a group of adults with learning disabilities and autism, we're thrilled to share our creativity and add our unique 'feathers' to this vibrant art project. Together we'll soar to new heights and create lasting memories."

Jenine McGaughran, Creative Producer at National Trust South Worcestershire said; "Following an extremely popular artist open call we appointed MrASingh to work collaboratively with seven local community partners. Participants have been asked to respond to Croome’s remarkable landscape and our Looking Closely theme, inspired by our Marcus Coates and Thomas Bewick exhibitions in the House.

Our aim has been to encourage these groups to tell us what inspires and excites them about Croome and to bring this to life on the bird sculptures that can be found across our parkland. We’re thrilled to be working with some very talented participants under the expert guidance of MrASingh." 

As well as the Seven Birds of Croome family sculpture trail over the Christmas period, there’s plenty more to more to see at Croome including a cascading origami bird installation in the house, rooms decorated with Christmas trees, festive choirs, craft workshops and more. The exhibitions inspiring this project; Thomas Bewick: Looking Closely and Marcus Coates: Conference for the Birds, can be seen in the house until February 2024. 

Christmas at Croome runs from 25 November until 5 January, open every day (apart from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) from 10am until 4pm. Find out more at nationaltrust.org.uk/croome.