YUSU have announced their selection of an artist to creat a memorial statue for Long Boi. In a post shared with the Yustart Long Boi donation page, it was announed that wildlife sculptor Neil R. Mason has been selected work on the project. Mason was selected after an artist open call was conducted whereby artists submitted proposals for the design of the memorial. Details of Mason’s past work can be found at https://www.neilrmason.com/.
The memorial will be a bronze, life-sized statue of the Indian Runner duck, to be installed on campus in the new year. Donations were collected to fund the project earlier this year after the University of York confirmed the absence and subsequent death of York mascot Long Boi. The Yustart campaign has raised £5347 from 337 donors since its launch in May 2023.
Project lead and YUSU President Pierrick Roger provided futher comment on the update:
“Students and staff who wanted to see Long Boi memorialised were very adamant that the statue be bronze, life-sized and installed outside on campus – I am very happy that we have been able to select a statue that will meet the expectations of our donors. I’m convinced Neil will be able to do Long Boi justice and I look forward to working with him to deliver this project. I would like to thank all donors for their patience over the past few months whilst we selected the statue and to Panel members who helped us decide on the open call’s final outcome.”
Long Boi was an Indian Runner duck that lived on West Campus, often spotted around Derwent college, and became iconic for his unusually long neck. First seen on campus back in 2019 he became an unofficial mascot for the University, and went viral in a reddit post from 2021, appearing on James Corden’s ‘The Late Late Show’ and Greg James’s BBC 1 radio show.
Long Boi was confirmed as missing and ‘presumed dead’ by the university in May 2023 after almost 2 months of absence on campus.