This year I have taken part in my first sculture trail, the Bookbench Storytrail for Amaze. My bench ‘Curious Creatures’ situated at Hove Lawns on the promande is sponsored by Tomsetts Distribution who moved all of our 30 big benches plus concrete plinths into place around Brighton and Hove. Big up Tomsetts!
There are also a futher 44 little benches painted by schools and community spaces to be found in schools and spaces like that. The benches are on display around the city until 8 November 2026 and can be found by the map or The Story Trail app where you can log the benches you’ve found and get little rewards here and there about the place.
It’s been such a delight to be part of this to work and create these wonderful things alongside other artists and meet some really talented people. The Bookbench sculptures created by Wild in Art represent a place to sit, meet and share stories, some of the benches reference to Sussex authors, places, ideals and some are painted by local illustrators a lot of whom can be found at the Book Nook children’s book store in Hove.
There’s also a pop up Amaze Storytrail store in Churchill Square shopping center where you can visit Benchy the mascot bench, he’s so cute, and buy merch and cool stuff. The Bookbenches will then all go to the Brighton Center for the Farewell weekend event from 27-29 November, get tickets at https://amazesussex.org.uk/thestorytrail/farewell-weekend/
The auction then happens on Monday 30th November to raise money for Amaze.