Media Contact:

Faye Pantazopoulos, Creative Director

South County Tourism Council

fpantazopoulos@southcountyri.com

857.225.4261 (mobile)

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Charlestown, RI  – August 9, 2024  – South County Tourism Council is honored to win a Best of Rhode Island Award courtesy of the editors of Rhode Island Monthly for Best Tourist Attraction for the Thomas Dambo trolls.

 

“We are so thankful for the recognition from Rhode Island Monthly’s editors,” says South County president, Louise Bishop. “We worked hard to bring the trolls here, and we’re grateful for the $50K grant from the American Rescue Plan Act that helped partially fund these works of public art. We’re excited to complete the troll trail next year and introduce more of these gentle giants throughout the entire state of Rhode Island. We have seen a marked increase in visitors to South County, and particularly Ninigret Park to go see and experience these sculptures.”

About Thomas Dambo

Thomas Dambo (Odense, Denmark; 1979) is the world's leading recycling artist. Since 2014 he has produced artwork with discarded materials in more than 20 countries on 5 continents, including the USA, China, Brazil, Australia, GB, Germany, France, South Korea, Chile, and Puerto Rico.

 

Among Thomas Dambo's most famous works are his giant Trolls, made out of recycled materials. More than 125 of them have been built from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, from forests to deserts. He has also built more than 7,000 birdhouses all over the world. Some of his most acclaimed works include the Happy Wall (Beijing, Las Vegas, Hollywood, Rio De Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Edmonton, Copenhagen, Roskilde) and the Future Forest (Chapultepec Park, Mexico City).

 

His passion for recycling and upcycling started when Thomas Dambo’s parents taught him and his brother the value of protecting nature and using recycled materials to make their own toys, costumes, tree houses, and items. In 2010, he graduated in Interactive Design from Kolding Design School. In his life, he has shown multifaceted interest in art and the music world: he has performed as a rapper, human beatbox, graffiti- and street artist. In 2011, he decided to quit his job in Danish television to fully embrace a full-time career in art. Today, Thomas Dambo lives on his farm in the Danish countryside, where he has his studio. He also offers talks about his activistic art practice and workshops to teach people how to reuse and upcycle. 

 

“My mission is Waste No More: our world is drowning in trash, while we are running out of natural resources. I spend my life showing the world that beautiful things can be made out of trash. I give new life to discarded materials by turning them into large-scale artworks. My aim at the moment is to build 1,000 Trolls using recycled materials all over the world,” states Thomas Dambo.

 

Thomas Dambo´s creative vision is to match together the beauty and the trash, together with the sense of adventure coming from the research needed to find his works on-site - most of which are hidden in natural sites. He works in and with local communities, who are involved in several stages of his projects, such as finding the discard materials, and maintaining the works. “The involvement of people is essential in my mission. I can give an example, but it´s the whole world that has to waste no more”, highlights Thomas Dambo. 

 

About South County Tourism Council The South County Tourism Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the towns of Charlestown, Coventry, East Greenwich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Narragansett, North Kingstown, Richmond, South Kingstown, West Greenwich and Westerly as a single leisure travel destination known as “South County”.   For more information, please visit southcountyri.com.

 

 

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