{"id":586153,"date":"2026-08-07T16:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586153\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:24:09","slug":"30-giant-crows-take-over-portland-for-laikas-wildwood-art-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586153\/","title":{"rendered":"30 giant crows take over Portland for LAIKA’s ‘Wildwood’ art trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

A flock of giant, artist-designed crows is landing across Portland in celebration of LAIKA’s upcoming animated film \u201cWildwood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wildwood “Follow the Crows” Art Trail features 30 large-scale crow sculptures designed by different artists.<\/p>\n

Sydney Mead, Senior Director of Downtown Programs at Downtown Portland Clean & Safe, said 23 of the crows will be located throughout Portland’s central city, with another seven positioned at locations elsewhere around the city.<\/p>\n

The project follows the previous Coraline Curious Cat Trail, which Mead said attracted 147,000 visitors.<\/p>\n

PAST COVERAGE | Portland’s magical Coraline cats raise $324,500 for children’s hospital<\/a><\/p>\n

Organizers received 214 submissions during an open call for artists before narrowing the field and ultimately selecting the designs featured on the trail.<\/p>\n

Among the participating artists is Portland’s Matt Jones, also known as “Freaky Footwear.”<\/p>\n

Jones said the finished crow stands about six feet tall once installed. Given a large white crow as his canvas<\/a>, Jones said he leaned into the city’s personality when developing his design.<\/p>\n

\"'Wildwood:<\/p>\n

‘Wildwood: Follow the Crows’ will feature various statues placed around downtown Portland – Portland Metro Chamber photo<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to stick with the tradition of Portland and I kept my crow weird,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

His sculpture will be displayed at Jamison Square.<\/p>\n

Visitors will also be able to download the Wildwood Follow the Crows app and use it to collect the sculptures as they explore the trail.<\/p>\n

The grand opening celebration is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 7, at the St. Johns Library. The event is free and open to the public, with several participating artists expected to attend and sign trail maps.<\/p>\n

MORE INFO ON THE ‘FOLLOW THE CROWS’ ART TRAIL<\/a><\/p>\n

Mead said Carson Ellis, who illustrated the original Wildwood book and is also participating in the trail, is expected to attend the opening.<\/p>\n

The public won’t get an early glimpse of the sculptures around town: Mead said the entire flock is being installed overnight ahead of the opening.<\/p>\n

The free art trail will also serve as a fundraiser. Organizers said there will be several opportunities to donate throughout the event, and the crow sculptures will eventually be auctioned.<\/p>\n

A final farewell weekend is also planned for Halloween.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A flock of giant, artist-designed crows is landing across Portland in celebration of LAIKA’s upcoming animated film \u201cWildwood.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-586153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}