Resilience in the face of difficulty 

Resilience in the face of difficulty 

Today we had the unveiling of our latest commission for Jennie and Dave Oates whose daughter is a student artist at Rowan. Dave approached us about creating a red kite for his wife Jennie as a gift to be placed in the garden at the family home. Alistair, a wood tutor at Rowan, and student volunteer Francis set to work on creating the red kite out of ash wood along with a stand to create the illusion of her flying. 

The red kite inspiration for this commission reflects a story of resilience in the face of difficulty. By the 1970s red kite’s were on the brink of extinction until a conservation project was set up in Wales to save them. By the mid-1990s there were more than 100 breeding pairs in Wales, and 350-400 pairs by 2003. You can now see red kites in Wales, Scotland, London and even locally in Cambridgeshire. The red kite’s future as a British breeding species is now much brighter with numbers rising 1026 per cent from 1995-2014. We look forward to getting some photos of Rowan’s red kite once she is set up at her new home. Read more on red kites here.