CELEBRATIONS will take place to mark a decade of the Dream next month.

The 20-metre high sculpture, which shows a young girl with her eyes closed, was installed at the former Sutton Manor Colliery site in 2009.

Ask the people of St Helens for their opinions on the artwork and it is likely there will be a mixed bag.

Some love it. Some hate it.

Others will argue that at £1.8m it was a waste of money (though the funding in fact came from a national pot largely from the Arts Council and would have gone elsewhere had St Helens’ bid proved unsuccessful).

But whatever your opinion on Dream or public art, it remains an important question to ask: has St Helens made the most of it?

The Angel of the North in Gateshead was regarded as a catalyst for cultural regeneration of the North East. It is a visual icon for that area.

In the months before Dream was created, there were bold claims it could have a similar transformative effect for St Helens.

But has it? Have we really made the most of this striking artwork?

Have we capitalised on a creation which now has smaller, mirror images standing in New York, Barcelona and Rio de Janiero.

It is a question rightfully being asked by Star readers in our letters pages and online message boards.

Surely, a mining museum, a visitors’ centre cafe (or maybe even a car park) could have been created to give the Dream an anchor – a tourism hub where school trips or parties of coach visitors could call to learn about St Helens’ great past.

It does seem like an opportunity missed.

But a decade on – and with the celebrations coming up at the end of May – surely there is an opportunity to look at this again and draw up a vision for its future.

The ex-miners, who worked with artist Jaume Plensa on the sculpture, act as tremendous ambassadors for the artwork, championing its cause to anyone they can.

Why not harness this passion and come up with some imaginative and creative ways of capitalising on Dream and making it a genuine asset for St Helens and the North West.