Every fancied creating your own enormous effigy? One Cornish art collective has reinvigorated the practice – and now they want to draw on the public’s skills, too
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his New Year’s Eve, environmentalist and author Lisa Schneidau did something she had never done before. She welcomed in 2026 with giants. “At a certain time of the evening, they started appearing from all over the town. Then everyone flooded out of their houses and congregated into a massive procession of giants and lights and drums and music. It was absolutely extraordinary.”
Schneidau’s fairytale experience happened in Lostwithiel, the Cornish home town of the art collective The Lost Giants (TLG), a group of craftspeople and artists reviving the British tradition of making giants and beasties and goliaths. The giants she celebrated with were made of wooden frames and cloth, papier-mache and card, but were full of life.
In medieval times, it was common for workers’ guilds and villages across the UK to create enormous mascots. Now, thanks to a growing interest in community activism, folk and craft, these processional giants are making a spirited comeback. In recent years, TLG has made giants for events ranging from the annual lantern parade in a Cornish town to a harvest procession at Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset gallery. This month, it has issued a public callout for an environmental group that would like to collaborate with it to make its very own beastie.
