ART lovers can help build a new seafront home for striking public sculpture by backing a new fundraising bid.

Hove Civic Society has launched a £35,000 fundraising drive to turn an empty seaside space next to the city’s colourful beach huts into a new home for public art.

If successful the Hove Plinth fundraising campaign will complete the £100,000 needed to meet the bill to build the stone base.

Further corporate fundraising is being carried out to pay for the creation of three sculptures selected in a public competition last year.

Eye-catching designs by Matthew James Davies, Pierre Diamantopoulo and Jonathan Wright were chosen last summer following a public vote and selection panel with each work set to occupy the plinth for around 18 months each.

Organisers hope that new homes in the city will be found for sculptures once they leave the plinth which will be built in King's Esplanade at the foot of Grand Avenue.

If successful the first artworks could appear on Hove seafront next year - five years after the project was first mooted.

The fundraising campaign has been launched in association with Brighton's Big Screen 2016 and has received support from Cass Art Supplies and Arts Council England.

Donors will be rewarded for their generosity with free tickets to Brighton's Big Screen, Cass Art materials or a one-off portrait sculpture workshop by award-winning Brighton sculptor Hazel Reeves.

Reminders of the campaign will be seen all around the city including on Brighton and Hove Buses, specially-made postcards and a promotional video to be shown every evening alongside Brighton Big Screen main features.

Project Manager Karin Janzon said: "We are now asking people to translate all the good will into hard cash to make the Hove Plinth happen.

“Many of our great Victorian monuments were funded by public subscription - the crowd funding of the times.

“We want to prove that the same spirit is still around today."

Winning sculptor Pierre Diamantopoulo said: "It is a fantastic opportunity for any artist to put a work of art, on a plinth, on the beach, with the sea as a backdrop - Venus de Milo would give her right arm for that."

Donors will have ten weeks from today [Friday] and need to visit crowdfunder.co.uk/hove-plinth.

A small donation can be made by texting Hove22 £5 to 70070.