[Ammi]

A controversial life-sized bronze sculpture of environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been unveiled by a university after being branded a “vanity project”.

The statue of the “inspirational” Swedish climate change protester has been created by the University of Winchester to reflect its values on “sustainability and social justice”.

But the Winchester University and College Union (UCU) posted a motion of censure on social media calling the sculpture a “vanity project” and stating the £24,000 cost should have been spent on preventing redundancies and cuts following a period of sustainability at the Hampshire university.

It added: “To be clear: our concerns are about the expenditure and transparency of decision making by the university, which have long been opaque, not the subject of the statue.”

...full article...

[Crimson Dynamo]

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

...haha, thank you...we were in sync, I was searching for an appropriate size one and found that as well...

[Ammi]

...I have to say in general I’m not a fan of statues ...those are especially my thoughts in recent times when statues are being taken down, why continue in that same vein when they provide very little and give very little to either a local or wider community...the funding could be better placed in so many associated projects when it would make an actual difference...

[Nicky91]

as it should, irrelevant Greta who only thinks of herself

[arista]

£24,000

Very Expensive.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by arista

£24,000


Yes the council needed
that Cash.

It's at a University, it's not public funds.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

It's at a University, it's not public funds.

Not strictly true as they get cash per Home student from the government, this is why there is such a vast differential between Home and Overseas fees

[Cherie]

I don't mind the statue, but maybe a little plaque would have done the trick, I don't this it's the 24K amount that is the issue here, but if they are making redundancies then its not really the best way to spend cash in these times, and where else could they make savings to save staff!

[Ammi]

...I’m just reading that 3 year’s fees for a student at Winchester...(...that would be a U.K. student, it would be more for an international one...)..would be £27,750...so around the same cost as the statue...for me, to provide a paid scholarship for someone would be more something I would personally prefer...it could equally have been named after Greta/in her honour and still representative of the ethos of the University...

[arista]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

It's at a University, it's not public funds.

No wonder the Students are Outraged

[Smithy]

I suppose it’s not a statue of a racist gammon so there will be a lot of complaints

[Niamh.]

It's a nice statue, really good likeness

[Ammi]

...she does look a little bit as though she might be flipping the finger, though.....

[user104658]

What statue isn't a vanity project? I don't think it's an issue, Universities need things like statues and art installations and various displays of interest and with Greta, I think, there's an argument of it not so much being a celebration of an individual as just a representation of a very specific period of time - climate change activism, the plight of future generations, etc.

Also it's £24k which in terms of a University decoration budget is small potatoes. A one-off £24k is not going to prevent redundancies. If you were telling me it was going to cost £240k I would definitely say the money would be better spent elsewhere.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

What statue isn't a vanity project? I don't think it's an issue, Universities need things like statues and art installations and various displays of interest and with Greta, I think, there's an argument of it not so much being a celebration of an individual as just a representation of a very specific period of time - climate change activism, the plight of future generations, etc.

Also it's £24k which in terms of a University decoration budget is small potatoes. If you were telling me it was going to cost £240k I would definitely say the money would be better spent elsewhere.

...I think that Niamh might approve the potato statue, an honour that hasn’t been bestowed yet for some reason...

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...I think that Niamh might approve the potato statue, an honour that hasn’t been bestowed yet for some reason...

A massive solid gold spud, worth over £200 million

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Ammi

...I think that Niamh might approve the potato statue, an honour that hasn’t been bestowed yet for some reason...

[Ammi]

......there’s a whole series of those across Rhode Island...


https://www.chowdaheadz.com/blogs/ne...s-rhode-island


...if ever a vegetable deserved a statue or a series of statues...?...

...we had something similar in Norwich only it was elephants...you can’t make chips out of elephants...

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Ammi

......there’s a whole series of those across Rhode Island...


https://www.chowdaheadz.com/blogs/ne...s-rhode-island


...if ever a vegetable deserved a statue or a series of statues...?...

...we had something similar in Norwich only it was elephants...you can’t make chips out of elephants...

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

What statue isn't a vanity project? I don't think it's an issue, Universities need things like statues and art installations and various displays of interest and with Greta, I think, there's an argument of it not so much being a celebration of an individual as just a representation of a very specific period of time - climate change activism, the plight of future generations, etc.

Also it's £24k which in terms of a University decoration budget is small potatoes. If you were telling me it was going to cost £240k I would definitely say the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Yes I agree with that, Greta is just more the representation of a movement and an important one

[Oliver_W]

Really, how far can £24k go to stop redundancies? That's not even one lecturer's salary.

Greta is pretty darn inspirational, and more people need to care about the environment, so if any current people 'deserve' a statue she's up there.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Ita a total vanity project and looks sh1t

imo

[DouglasS]

Students are being charged up to 10K a year to enroll and they’re paying for crap statues like this? Pretty sure if you asked the students for money off their loan and to not have this statue they would accept... waste of cash

[bots]

i think it's playing to the crowd, and clearly those with a financial stake in the game are a bit hacked off. To me, it would be appropriate to poll the current students to see if there was consensus for having it. Apart from that, I dislike all statues of people, it's a throw back to when people worshiped idols