Orlando Bloom Voted Kent’s Cultural Icon

Following the fourth annual Canterbury Cultural Awards, Orlando Bloom has won the award for Kent’s Cultural Icon, alongside other nominees Brenda Blethyn, Tracey Emin and Ellie Goulding.

Orlando Bloom has been selected as Kent’s Cultural Icon in the Canterbury Cultural Awards 2014, which was sponsored by the University.

The Pirates of The Carribean star was unable to attend the event due to currently being in the USA, so the award was collected by his mother, Sonia Copeland-Bloom, on his behalf from the Canterbury campus on Thursday, 12 June.

Bloom expressed his gratitude via a video message, which was shown to the audience upon the announcement that he had won. Bloom’s mother expressed her own thanks and stated how proud Bloom was to have been chosen by his home county as the winner of the award.

As well as gaining Kent’s Cultural Icon this year, in 2010 Bloom was awarded an honorary degree as a Doctor of Arts.

The Cultural Awards were founded in 2011, and are annual awards given to those who are said to produce the best creative work in East Kent. The nominees consist of performers, artists, marketeers, designers and cultural organisations.