A pride of lions in Northamptonshire

The lions will be at schools in the county.

For ten weeks in the summer of 2010, Northampton is going to be taken over by a pride of lions.

Businesses, community groups and individuals are being asked to sponsor their own lion sculpture, which will be decorated by local artists.

The lions will range in height, with the largest being five feet tall.

After being paraded around the town centre the sculptures will be auctioned, with some of the proceeds going to charity.

Creativity in schools

More than 20 schools in Northamptonshire have already joined the project, called "Pride of Northampton" and the first of the jet white lion sculptures have arrived in classrooms ready to be decorated.

As well as painting the lions in art classes, Charlie Langhorne from the organisers Wild in Art hopes schools will weave the lion theme into other lessons, such as Maths and English.

"We put creativity at the heart of the curriculum - we want teachers to take that enthusiasm from the kids and use it in other areas of the curriculum. So it might be in English - let's imagine a lion on the African plains and write about that," he said.

Who knows what they're going to look like - but I suspect they'll be fantastic Charlie Langhorne

"The lion is a blank canvas and part of the fun will be to see the creativity of the children and the professional artists involved," he said.

It's hoped that the display of the finished lions will encourage pride in Northampton and bring many more people into the town centre from June.

The art group Wild in Art has been responsible for hundreds of wild animals appearing in several major towns and cities, including a parade of 250 penguins in Liverpool, and a herd of rhinos in Chester.