Yep you read that headline right. The world famous pop star Ed Sheeran, adored by millions all over the world is joining the latest, and final Background Bob art project, much to the excitement of everyone involved.
The news was announced on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter a couple of days ago via a short video from Ed Sheeran himself. Seen holding the previous two Background Bob books he thanks Background Bob and announces he’ll paint on the background he received as soon as he can. He finishes the video with the short statement ‘I love what you’re doing’.
Before we go into the how and why of it all, if you’re not familiar with Background Bob we highly recommend you check out our original article on this wonderful art project:
Background Bob project becomes a positive global movement
Background Bob book launch celebrates participating artists
Background Bob exhibition a heart-warming must see show
Bid in Background Bob auction and help break £50,000
Background Bob art auction smashes £50,000 target
The Background Bob project’s back for round 2
Are you ready for the Background Bob 2 auction?
When we spoke to Noah’s dad, Nathan, he explained how this amazing addition to the Background Bob 3 line up happened:
“One of our followers on Instagram and an artist involved in this year’s project very kindly painted a beautiful portrait of Noah last year, and through further conversations we found out that he was a friend of Ed’s. So I cheekily asked if he’d help us in gifting our books to him, as we’d love him to find out about the project. He was more than happy to pass them on for us along with a background too.
A few weeks passed, and I began assuming nothing was going to come from it, then, out of the blue, I received the video message!
To be honest we couldn’t believe it. I mean he must get inundated with requests, so for him to want to be a part of this is just amazing”
Ed Sheeran announces his involvement in Background Bob 3 via a short 7 second video
Now if you’re wondering why a pop star would be getting involved in an art project, well what you might not know is that aside from creating music, Ed Sheeran also creates abstract artworks reminiscent of Jackson Pollock. We can’t wait to see the finished piece and are pretty sure it will certainly attract attention when it comes to auctioning off the collaborations.
So far, Background Bob 3, has attracted over 700 artists wanting to take part, but with limited space, Noah and his family have had to be quite selective in who is involved in order to have a wide range of artists taking part.
“When it all first started we never anticipated so many people would want to be a part of our little project, and to be honest it is incredibly humbling. We’ve had enquiries from all over the world.
@brokenthugzclub 
@davidstribblingwildlifeart 
@koeone_ 
@mrsnstencils 
@nina_martin_art 
@pixelpunks_art
What we’ve loved about it is the fact that emerging artists get to rub shoulders with very successful ones, for example we are currently waiting for a piece from Shephard Fairey.
But it’s not just artists getting involved, this time round we’ve also got comedian Phil Jupitus who took part in the first project and Joe Lycett.” Explained Nathan.
If you’ve read our previous articles, you’ll know just how proud we are of what the Background Bob project has become. As it’s grown it would have been easy to just fill the spaces with big names but Noah and his family have continued to ensure that people from all walks of life have got the opportunity to be a part of this.
Although this is the final Background Bob project it is not the end. Nathan explained to us that they’re not going away any time soon…
“We just felt that going forwards we wanted to mix it up a bit, rather than doing the same format. We have some very exciting plans for the future,,, so which this space”.
Having Ed Sheeran on board is certainly a huge scoop for the project and we can’t wait to see what happens in the next auction… let’s hope it’s the biggest one yet and raises even more money for charity.
