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Launch of ‘Around Cornwall in 38 Churns’ hosted at Paradise Park

27th April 2022

The launch of a remarkable and very unusual art project was hosted here at Paradise Park on Wednesday, to raise funds for Cornish healthcare charity Cornwall Hospice Care. ‘Around Cornwall in 38 Churns’ has been devised by Sue Dennett of Newquay who also wanted to showcase the county’s talented artists and stunning locations. The project is being supported by Rodda’s Creamery, Visit Cornwall and David Lay Auctions and will culminate in a grand auction of the churns at Truro Cathedral.

Artists from across Cornwall have been given a churn, kindly donated by Rodda’s Creamery, and have offered their talent and time to decorate each one in their own particular style. They include famous names such as Kurt Jackson, Michael Praed and Dick Twinney. Each will be featured at venues around Cornwall and through the summer and people will be encouraged to follow a trail via an interactive map to visit the churns.

“Ultimately each churn will be auctioned to raise money for Cornwall Hospice Care, a local charity I feel passionately about,” says organiser Sue Dennett. The Chair of the charity’s Newquay Fundraising Group, she’s supported Mount Edgcumbe Hospice and St Julia’s Hospice for the last 38 years. “The churns look amazing and will I’m sure, prove a big attraction at the many venues where they’ll be displayed through the summer months. We’ll then complete the auction on Wednesday 21^st September at Truro Cathedral and given the comments we’ve already received; I think the bidding is going to be feverish.”

Alison Hales Director at Paradise Park commented ” The first we heard about painted churns was from Cornwall Hospice Care when they called us to see if we would display an old milk churn painted with choughs for their fund-raising initiative – of course we said yes straight away!

The hospice is right next door to us in Hayle so we know it well, and we love choughs having worked to conserve them for years so we knew we wanted to be involved.

Now we have seen the full range they are amazing, really colourful with so many styles and subjects all linked to Cornwall, the artists should be very proud of their work and in their support of the hospice.”

Full details of all the artists and their churns are available on the official website HERE. The specially created website was generously donated by GSLMedia of Plymouth.

Dick Twinney