You Name It

Every morning I wake up and wonder what kind of opportunities the day will bring. As a publicist, I have to be careful what I decide to get involved with.

I read in the The Mirror today about the campaign to keep the memory of Charlie Thompson alive.  She was the 13 year old girl who was hit by a train and killed in 2005 and now her parents are encouraging people to write her name all over the world in her memory, and so far “Charlie” has been written as far away as Outer Mongolia and Australia.  All pictures of her name will go to raise £11,000.00 to buy a bus for poverty stricken children to get to school in Khandel in India.

I find it slightly bizarre that tomorrow I will be amidst a group of fame merchants, taking part in the judging for “Name In Lights”, Joshua Sofaer’s latest conceptual art project.  Sofaer is calling the public to stake their claim in popular culture by submitting in 150 words, their case for why their, or someone else’s name should be a contemporary art installation.  The winning entry will have their name displayed as a piece of art, in illuminated 12 ft high letters, on the top of Birmingham Central Library.

One is purely art, the other for a grieving father trying to create a legacy for his daughter.  In my quiet moments, I sneakily wish I was doing more for the charity than the art project.