Idris Elba’s movie career, The Eden Project and giant horse sculptures The Kelpies are among 25 things that may not exist were it not for the National Lottery.
The movie Bend it Like Beckham and gold medal-winning Olympians Victoria Pendleton and Sir Chris Hoy are other national treasures to benefit from lottery grants.
The list has been brought together in a new piece of modern art by world-renowned artist David Mach.
He was commissioned to create a mural to celebrate the start of eight weeks of celebrations for The National Lottery’s 25th birthday.
The artwork features a mix of famous and lesser-known national treasures brought together in one image to represent The National Lottery's impact on life in the UK over the last 25 years - across sports, film, heritage, the arts, and community projects.
It includes the Morecambe Brass Band, one of the first projects to ever receive National Lottery funding; and Idris Elba, who made his directorial debut in 2018 with Yardie, thanks to help from the organisation.
David Mach said: “For the past 25 years, there is barely a part of our cultural, sporting and community life that has not been positively influenced by National Lottery funding.
“As someone who is involved in charities and institutions, and has artwork commissioned from National Lottery funding, I know the impact it has had on the UK.
“I wanted to help people to get a sense of this impact with this artwork through 25 stories and to have it shown on a local high street for anyone to view is fitting.”
Other beneficiaries of lottery funding over the last quarter-century include Tracey Emin, Rio Ferdinand, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Betty Webb and a World War Two codebreaker from Bletchley Park.
The artwork, titled ‘United By Numbers: The National Lottery at 25’ was unveiled on October 16.
It was exhibited for the day in the window of Booth & Howarth on Mauldeth Road, Manchester, a shop that has been selling National Lottery tickets for 25 years.
It’s also available to view online at www.unitedbynumbers.co.uk.
2012 Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendleton, who features in the artwork, added: “The National Lottery helps thousands of athletes across the country reach for their dreams and inspire the nation.
“It helped fund those amazing experiences in 2012 that we all remember and cherish; and I doubt I would have been able to win Olympic gold without it.
“It is an honour to be chosen by David for this amazing artwork to represent the impact playing The National Lottery has had on the Olympics.
“I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming celebrations to mark the 25th birthday of what has become such an important institution.”
See www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk for details of individuals and organisations helped in areas of the UK.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel