Huddersfield's University campus is to become home to a new permanent Holocaust Memorial sculpture.
And it will be a first for the North East of England once the £1.5m fundraising has been completed
Six tear-drop shaped three-metre high sculptures made entirely from donated buttons will be erected near the main campus reception – visible to thousands of motorists travelling on the ring road each day.
The sculpture project builds on the 6 million+ exhibition and sculpture created in 2006 by artist Antonia Stowe made from donated buttons.
And last night more than 200 people gathered at Huddersfield Town Hall to hear the chosen site for the new sculpture announced.
The university campus was one option, along with Greenhead Park and Huddersfield new College.
Kim Strickson, community heritage manager, said: “We will have not just a beautiful sculpture but a chance to keep the Holocaust Memorial project alive by continuing to invite the community to get involved.
“We had no idea we would have such a positive response from the initial project in 2006 and were left with a situation as to what to do with all the buttons.
“We have since been working to create a permanent sculpture on display for the public.”
Ms Strickson added: “The university stood out due to its provision for the educational project and links with schools and colleges.”
Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Tim Thornton said: “Holocaust Memorial Day matters to us because we have in our own community many people whose families and wider communities were directly affected by the events of seven decades ago.
“We have an infrastructure dedicated to supporting learning, and ensuring the preservation of memory.
“We believe we can provide a space in which all those who have been involved in the 6m+ process can come together to support its continuing development.”
Artist Antonia Stowe, who has designed the new sculptures, said: “The challenge has been to create a permanent sculpture incorporating those buttons which will be able to withstand the elements in an exterior space.
“Buttons obviously disintegrate so we had to think very carefully.
“Creating the teardrop form is really a metaphor of such emotion.
“The idea then relates individually to droplets from the sky and its contents feeds the soil and new life.”
Invited guests to the event included Iby Knill, author and survivor of Auschwitz and Dilara Changis, who fled persecution in Afghanistan and is now a Huddersfield University student.
An independent trust will be set up to fundraise for the project.
It is estimated £1.5 million will need to be raised to create and install the sculpture, and deliver a three- year education project.
