Donald Brown
Category - The Arts
He has been sculpturing for over 35 years since the age of 15.
He has worked with staff and students in schools for over twenty years in England, America and Africa. He recently spearheaded a new initiative - Project AIRWAVES to address many of the negative and destructive forms of artistic creativity produced by artists and students.
He had a recent workshop at Ormiston Academy in Birmingham. Aidan Nisbett was a student at Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy who while playing football, collapsed in the school playground and later died in the hospital from heart complications. His sudden death came as a shock to his parents - Jacqueline Muir and Terence Nisbett. He was asked by the school to help the school in the healing process by working with the staff and students to create a memorial for Aidan Nisbett. "I was so humbled and honoured to be able to participate in celebrating Aidan's life and legacy through my gift as a sculptor. It warmed my heart to hear his parents say that I had so captured the likeness of their son even though I had never met him. More importantly for them to say that being included in the process of creating the sculpture was healing and therapy for them reaffirmed for me how important art is and its rightful place in our lives."
He is also concerned about the degree of violence in communities and has focussed on his home town of Wolverhampton by hosting an event and inviting Hollywood actor, Joseph Marcell to launch a new sculpture entitled, Stop The Violence.
Recipients and owners of his works include, Beyonce and Destiny's Child, Whitney Houston, Lawrence Fishburn, Barbara Sinatra, Colin Powell, The President of The Gambia - Yahya Jammeh, The ANC in South Africa, The Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, Morehouse College in Atlanta, Life University in Atlanta, Benedict College in South Carolina. He was also commissioned by the City of Hamilton in Bermuda to sculpt the national coat of arms for the city park gates.