Great expectations
Simon Wallis wants to ensure that the Hepworth Wakefield reaches as many audiences as possible. By Simon Stephens
This is going to be an important year for the Hepworth Wakefield, which will combine high-profile exhibitions with work on projects that will be key to its future.
Simon Wallis, who joined as the gallery’s director in 2008, points to the Lynda Benglis exhibition opening next month (6 February-5 July) as an indication of the Hepworth’s ambitions as a venue for international contemporary art shows.
“Lynda Benglis is probably one of the most important sculptors working in north America, and it’s fascinating that an artist of that stature, in their mid-70s, has not had a UK solo institutional show yet – I’m delighted that we are the ones to do it,” Wallis says.
“People are beginning to take notice of the level of artist that we are able to work with.”
This will be followed in July by an Anthony Caro show, the first joint exhibition to come out of the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, an initiative that has brought together the Hepworth Wakefield with the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Challenging location
The £35m Hepworth Wakefield opened in 2011 as the UK’s largest purpose-built gallery since London’s Hayward Gallery was unveiled in 1968. Partnerships such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle are one of the ways that it has grown its audiences.
The gallery, which attracts about 250,000 visitors a year, is in a challenging location and has to work hard to attract people.
“The difficulty is not being in the centre of town, which means that every person who comes through the door has made an effort to come and do so,” Wallis says.
To counter this, Wallis has plans to help further regenerate the part of the river Calder on which the Hepworth Wakefield sits. This was the aim when the gallery was built although the recession put paid to that.
But in the summer of 2013, the gallery opened The Calder, a space for exhibiting contemporary art in a 19th-century former textile mill on the river.
“The Calder is a beautiful space and it’s only the ground floor of one building that’s about a 20th of the whole of the site,” Wallis says. “We’re trying to develop the other floors with the University of Leeds, because the other thing that Wakefield does not have is a university.”
The aim is to create a range of spaces for use by businesses and public-sector organisations such as the university.
Inclusive approach
“I don’t need more space for art, what I want is people with terrific ideas who might be starting up businesses that are perhaps related to the creative industries,” -Wallis says.
“We’ve got a proven track record of three years’ worth of success and achievement that far exceeds what anybody had necessarily expected to happen. We’re still here to be that leverage for the further development that we want to see.”
Wakefield itself is a complex place to work in, having areas of poverty alongside more affluent parts. But Wallis and his team are committed to attracting everybody, however difficult that is.
“One of the important things an organisation like this does is that it has a broad, open-armed approach that pulls in everybody, regardless of background,” says Wallis, who believes that maintaining free entry is vital.
“The way to ensure that you really narrow your -audience right down is to charge, no matter how small,” he says. “I don’t want only an educated middle-class audience, who in some ways I would bank on coming under any circumstances.”
But Wallis is also aware that the museum funding landscape is changing rapidly. “Who knows what we’ve got to face as we move forward,” he says. “I’m a pragmatist and I’m ready.”
The Hepworth does have a lot going for it, despite the challenges it faces. It’s a great building to show art with its series of light-filled galleries designed by David Chipperfield Architects.
The Hepworth Wakefield, which is named after locally-born sculptor Barbara Hepworth, also has a fantastic collection. It includes major works by Hepworth and her contemporary Henry Moore, who was born nearby in Castleford, as well as works by other leading British artists.
The displays also feature loans from other organisations, and Wallis says these works help to provide a refreshed context for Hepworth’s art and the wider collection that the city has built up.
Wallis believes that another advantage is the Hepworth Wakefield’s trust status. When he joined in 2008 he was clear that this was vital if the museum was to create a workable business plan.
Being a trust helps the gallery attract private investment and allows it to operate in a tighter and leaner way than perhaps would have been possible through a local authority. But Wallis says the relationship with Wakefield Council is a strong one.
“The local authority is a strategic partner; it is one of our most important stakeholders and we try and pay close attention to its strategic priorities,” Wallis says.
“We want to be responsive as an organisation and have a vision that can accommodate the changing priorities and challenges that local authorities have. We’re all in the same boat, we’re all trying to make something good happen for the city and region – that’s the thing that binds us together.”
Wallis says many cities in the UK could benefit from more investment, including in their cultural infrastructure, and he was encouraged by a recent article written by Peter Bazalgette, the chairman of Arts Council England, who supported this.
Thinking outside of London
“Bazalgette said that you should look at the second-tier cities around the country that we have not invested in properly so that they can become the powerhouses they once were.
"Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol… these are places that could be doing so much more for the country with some proper investment.
“So it was really heartening to see somebody leading the arts council understanding the importance of maintaining a high investment outside of London,” Wallis continues.
“London is hugely important too, but it’s got access to plenty of private money. In my book, London still gets too much resource pumped into it and more of this resource needs to be used strategically to make sure, as Bazalgette said, that the second-tier cities are able to flourish.”
Wallis has seen the impact that the Hepworth Wakefield has had on the area since it opened and believes it has made a real difference to people.
“People take a lot of pride in the success of this place and the fact that so many different parts of the community use us on a regular basis, particularly through the learning work we do, means we have made huge inroads into giving people life-altering and life-enhancing -experiences, no matter how subtly that’s happening,” Wallis says.
“That is what we turn to galleries and museums for, these moments of quieter reflection and inspiration that are harder to come by now.”
It is because of his belief in the power of art to improve people’s lives that Wallis is determined to reach more of the community. He is looking to commission research to get a more sophisticated understanding of those who visit the gallery, but also, crucially, those who don’t.
“This isn’t some sort of nice to do tick-box exercise, this is the thing that will enable us to talk to the audience we have already got effectively and engagingly, and to make sure that we talk to and build an audience that we don’t yet have – to the people to whom we’re irrelevant,” Wallis says.
“And I’m not just going to leave them there – I’m going to bother them until they give in.”
Simon Wallis became the director of the Hepworth Wakefield in 2008, about three years before it opened.
He joined from Chisenhale Gallery, a space for contemporary art in London where he was the director from 2004 to 2008.
Before that he was the senior exhibition organiser at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (2002-2004). He was a curator at Tate Liverpool (1998-2002) and the exhibitions curator at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge (1994-1998). He has an MA in art gallery and museum studies.
The £35m gallery, the Hepworth Wakefield, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, opened in 2011 as the UK’s largest purpose-built gallery since London’s Hayward Gallery was built in 1968.
The Hepworth Wakefield takes its name from sculptor Barbara Hepworth, who was born in Wakefield in 1903. It showcases the city’s nationally important collection, which includes works by Hepworth and her contemporary Henry Moore.
The Wakefield Council Permanent Art Collection also holds works by other leading British artists including Ben Nicholson, Jacob Epstein, Ivon Hitchens, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Paul Nash, Patrick Heron, LS Lowry and Lucie Rie. It also has loans from Tate, the Arts Council Collection and the British Council.
The Hepworth Wakefield’s main funders are Wakefield Council and Arts Council England.
Simon Wallis, who joined as the gallery’s director in 2008, points to the Lynda Benglis exhibition opening next month (6 February-5 July) as an indication of the Hepworth’s ambitions as a venue for international contemporary art shows.
“Lynda Benglis is probably one of the most important sculptors working in north America, and it’s fascinating that an artist of that stature, in their mid-70s, has not had a UK solo institutional show yet – I’m delighted that we are the ones to do it,” Wallis says.
“People are beginning to take notice of the level of artist that we are able to work with.”
This will be followed in July by an Anthony Caro show, the first joint exhibition to come out of the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, an initiative that has brought together the Hepworth Wakefield with the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Challenging location
The £35m Hepworth Wakefield opened in 2011 as the UK’s largest purpose-built gallery since London’s Hayward Gallery was unveiled in 1968. Partnerships such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle are one of the ways that it has grown its audiences.
The gallery, which attracts about 250,000 visitors a year, is in a challenging location and has to work hard to attract people.
“The difficulty is not being in the centre of town, which means that every person who comes through the door has made an effort to come and do so,” Wallis says.
To counter this, Wallis has plans to help further regenerate the part of the river Calder on which the Hepworth Wakefield sits. This was the aim when the gallery was built although the recession put paid to that.
But in the summer of 2013, the gallery opened The Calder, a space for exhibiting contemporary art in a 19th-century former textile mill on the river.
“The Calder is a beautiful space and it’s only the ground floor of one building that’s about a 20th of the whole of the site,” Wallis says. “We’re trying to develop the other floors with the University of Leeds, because the other thing that Wakefield does not have is a university.”
The aim is to create a range of spaces for use by businesses and public-sector organisations such as the university.
Inclusive approach
“I don’t need more space for art, what I want is people with terrific ideas who might be starting up businesses that are perhaps related to the creative industries,” -Wallis says.
“We’ve got a proven track record of three years’ worth of success and achievement that far exceeds what anybody had necessarily expected to happen. We’re still here to be that leverage for the further development that we want to see.”
Wakefield itself is a complex place to work in, having areas of poverty alongside more affluent parts. But Wallis and his team are committed to attracting everybody, however difficult that is.
“One of the important things an organisation like this does is that it has a broad, open-armed approach that pulls in everybody, regardless of background,” says Wallis, who believes that maintaining free entry is vital.
“The way to ensure that you really narrow your -audience right down is to charge, no matter how small,” he says. “I don’t want only an educated middle-class audience, who in some ways I would bank on coming under any circumstances.”
But Wallis is also aware that the museum funding landscape is changing rapidly. “Who knows what we’ve got to face as we move forward,” he says. “I’m a pragmatist and I’m ready.”
The Hepworth does have a lot going for it, despite the challenges it faces. It’s a great building to show art with its series of light-filled galleries designed by David Chipperfield Architects.
The Hepworth Wakefield, which is named after locally-born sculptor Barbara Hepworth, also has a fantastic collection. It includes major works by Hepworth and her contemporary Henry Moore, who was born nearby in Castleford, as well as works by other leading British artists.
The displays also feature loans from other organisations, and Wallis says these works help to provide a refreshed context for Hepworth’s art and the wider collection that the city has built up.
Wallis believes that another advantage is the Hepworth Wakefield’s trust status. When he joined in 2008 he was clear that this was vital if the museum was to create a workable business plan.
Being a trust helps the gallery attract private investment and allows it to operate in a tighter and leaner way than perhaps would have been possible through a local authority. But Wallis says the relationship with Wakefield Council is a strong one.
“The local authority is a strategic partner; it is one of our most important stakeholders and we try and pay close attention to its strategic priorities,” Wallis says.
“We want to be responsive as an organisation and have a vision that can accommodate the changing priorities and challenges that local authorities have. We’re all in the same boat, we’re all trying to make something good happen for the city and region – that’s the thing that binds us together.”
Wallis says many cities in the UK could benefit from more investment, including in their cultural infrastructure, and he was encouraged by a recent article written by Peter Bazalgette, the chairman of Arts Council England, who supported this.
Thinking outside of London
“Bazalgette said that you should look at the second-tier cities around the country that we have not invested in properly so that they can become the powerhouses they once were.
"Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol… these are places that could be doing so much more for the country with some proper investment.
“So it was really heartening to see somebody leading the arts council understanding the importance of maintaining a high investment outside of London,” Wallis continues.
“London is hugely important too, but it’s got access to plenty of private money. In my book, London still gets too much resource pumped into it and more of this resource needs to be used strategically to make sure, as Bazalgette said, that the second-tier cities are able to flourish.”
Wallis has seen the impact that the Hepworth Wakefield has had on the area since it opened and believes it has made a real difference to people.
“People take a lot of pride in the success of this place and the fact that so many different parts of the community use us on a regular basis, particularly through the learning work we do, means we have made huge inroads into giving people life-altering and life-enhancing -experiences, no matter how subtly that’s happening,” Wallis says.
“That is what we turn to galleries and museums for, these moments of quieter reflection and inspiration that are harder to come by now.”
It is because of his belief in the power of art to improve people’s lives that Wallis is determined to reach more of the community. He is looking to commission research to get a more sophisticated understanding of those who visit the gallery, but also, crucially, those who don’t.
“This isn’t some sort of nice to do tick-box exercise, this is the thing that will enable us to talk to the audience we have already got effectively and engagingly, and to make sure that we talk to and build an audience that we don’t yet have – to the people to whom we’re irrelevant,” Wallis says.
“And I’m not just going to leave them there – I’m going to bother them until they give in.”
Simon Wallis at a glance
Simon Wallis became the director of the Hepworth Wakefield in 2008, about three years before it opened.
He joined from Chisenhale Gallery, a space for contemporary art in London where he was the director from 2004 to 2008.
Before that he was the senior exhibition organiser at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (2002-2004). He was a curator at Tate Liverpool (1998-2002) and the exhibitions curator at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge (1994-1998). He has an MA in art gallery and museum studies.
The Hepworth Wakefield at a glance
The £35m gallery, the Hepworth Wakefield, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, opened in 2011 as the UK’s largest purpose-built gallery since London’s Hayward Gallery was built in 1968.
The Hepworth Wakefield takes its name from sculptor Barbara Hepworth, who was born in Wakefield in 1903. It showcases the city’s nationally important collection, which includes works by Hepworth and her contemporary Henry Moore.
The Wakefield Council Permanent Art Collection also holds works by other leading British artists including Ben Nicholson, Jacob Epstein, Ivon Hitchens, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Paul Nash, Patrick Heron, LS Lowry and Lucie Rie. It also has loans from Tate, the Arts Council Collection and the British Council.
The Hepworth Wakefield’s main funders are Wakefield Council and Arts Council England.