A CAMPAIGN facing a race against time to raise £6,000 to pay for a piece of neon artwork for the front of the Bowes Museum has now gone on-line.

Artist Gavin Turk has created the sculpture which will broadcast the world’s population numerically onto the front of the Barnard Castle museum.

It has been created for Mr Turk’s show, Seven Billion Two Hundred and One Million Nine Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand and Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight, which is at the museum in January.

Now the museum staff are appealing for help as they tackle the challenge of raising the £6,000 needed to pay for and to install the artwork.

They have turned to Crowdfunding, via the on-line platform, Kickstarter, where people pledge money to support a project.

The scheme needs to raise the full £6,000 by 1pm on Monday, January 13.

Alison Nicholson the museum’s digital communications officer, said: “It’s really exciting to see the momentum building in the campaign to commission a Gavin Turk neon.

“Creating and installing an eight-and-a-half-metre wide neon at the museum is an ambitious project.

“There are fantastic rewards in return for pledges, as well as the chance to be part of realising a unique piece of conceptual art.”

Pledges can start at £1 and anyone who donates more than £1,000 will receive an unframed edition of the picture Gold Triple Poop.

The picture shows Mr Turk as Sid Vicious, of the Sex Pistols, in the pose of Andy Warhol’s Elvis Presley.

For further details on the scheme, or to make a donation, visit kck.st/1bdtuj9