This in from Ben Ainslie Racing. Ed
Ben Ainslie (BAR’s Team Principal and Skipper) and Sir Keith Mills (Chairman of the 1851 Trust), will show the Duchess the new building under construction on the Camber in Old Portsmouth. The building will also host the 1851 Trust’s new Visitor Centre, due to open for school visits at the start of the next academic year in September 2015.
To celebrate its launch last October, the 1851 Trust ran an art project to paint a mural on the BAR construction site hoardings. Seventy two young people from six Portsmouth and Isle of Wight schools took part – Ryde School and Ryde Academy,– working on a painting of the Solent.
Local teacher and street artist James Waterfield painted the background design, a skyline and seascape scene stretching across the Solent from Ryde on the Isle of Wight, to Portsmouth. Waterfield and internationally renowned artist, My Dog Sighs then worked on filling in the mural with the school children, painting boats, planes, hovercraft and other icons from the region’s rich maritime history.
Show the Duchess their work
The schools and the artists have all been invited back to meet the Duchess and to show her their work. The Duchess will add her own touch to the mural with a painting of the team’s AC45 – the dramatic, high-speed foiling boats that will contest the America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth in July 2015 and 2016.
The Duchess will also visit the Spinnaker Tower in Gunwharf Quays, for a briefing on the construction of the BAR headquarters, the Visitor Centre that it will host for the 1851 Trust, and the plans for the America’s Cup World Series that will come to Portsmouth in July 2015 and 2016.
Other students invited
Students have also been invited from Cowes Enterprise College, Brune Park Community School, City College Southampton, Springfield School, Mayfield School, Portsmouth Grammar School, Priory School, Riders Junior School and Westover Primary School to come and meet The Duchess and test some of the ideas in development for exhibits that will feature in the Visitor Centre.
Image: © Frank Lloyd Photography
