A Powerful Weekend at the Pollyanna Pickering Gallery

We were recently invited to Derbyshire to celebrate the anniversary of the Pollyanna Pickering Gallery — a space deeply rooted in wildlife art and conservation. After a two-and-a-half-hour journey, packed tightly in a car full of great ape sculptures and plinths, we arrived to the warmest welcome in Pollyanna’s beautiful home and gallery setting.

Opening night was electric. The Thinker found a new home, raising £850 for charity. The beneficiary of this donation — one close to our hearts — will be announced soon on social media.

But it was Long Arm, our life-sized orangutan sculpture, who quietly stole the show. Created in honour of Leuser, the blind orangutan shot 62 times for wandering onto a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, this piece continues to do what it was made to do — spark conversation, provoke emotion, and spread palm oil awareness.

Visitors sat with him. Listened. Reflected. Many scanned the QR code, uploaded their photos, and became part of the ever-growing human trail — a symbolic act of solidarity and support for rainforest conservation and wildlife protection.

It’s moments like these that remind me how powerful art as activism can be. One sculpture. One story. One orangutan. And already, waves of change begin.