Four Yorkshire galleries have secured £750,000 in funding from Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence programme for a joint project to hold an international sculpture event every three years.
The Yorkshire Sculpture International project will involve the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park collaborating on a season of artistic programming, audience development and international commissioning partnerships between July and September 2019.
John Roles, the head of Leeds Museums and Galleries, says patience has been important for the partnership.
“You can only progress at the speed of the most reluctant partner,” he says. “It’s also crucial to provide a body to provide admin and support to oil the wheels. No matter how much senior support there is from the partners, they have their day jobs to deliver on.”
Roles says the project’s aims include hosting local artist residencies and major international sculpture exhibitions. It may use volunteer guides to broaden the institutions’ audiences.
The members of the partnership, known collectively as the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, have complementary strengths, according to Roles.
Working together
“The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a unique setting to show sculpture, the Hepworth Wakefield is a wonderful exhibition space, the Henry Moore Institute has a good academic reputation, and Leeds Art Gallery has an extended collection but limited space to display it,” he says.
Simon Wallis, the director of the Hepworth Wakefield, which won the £100,000 Art Fund Museum of the Year prize in July, says the group has built on the area’s historic relationship to sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore and strong sculpture collections.
“I think we would only thrive if we worked with near neighbours,” he says. “It helps that we’re in the same region but not in the same city. We are all longstanding friends and have the shared DNA of sculpture. There’s something powerful about having coalesced around one art form.”
Wallis says longevity, sharing of knowledge, talent retention in the region, community outreach, and audience and collections growth are among the members’ shared aims.
Godfrey Worsdale, the director of the Henry Moore Foundation, says all partnerships involve a degree of uncertainty, although the group has a long-established working relationship.
Element of risk
“All partnerships involve an element of risk because you don’t know an organisation until you’ve partnered with it,” he says. “You may admire it from afar, but when you share an initiative with a partner organisation, you quickly realise the intricacies.”
Worsdale says there are “few unknowns” in this particular arrangement. “Though we are setting ourselves challenges we haven’t set before, we have the comfort of having got to know one another,” he adds.
The Hepworth Wakefield is also partnering with the Henry Moore Institute on an acquisition scheme with the Contemporary Art Society, according to Worsdale.
“We need to know we can depend on one another, and that when one partner says they will do something, it will happen,” he says.
The Yorkshire Sculpture International project will involve the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park collaborating on a season of artistic programming, audience development and international commissioning partnerships between July and September 2019.
John Roles, the head of Leeds Museums and Galleries, says patience has been important for the partnership.
“You can only progress at the speed of the most reluctant partner,” he says. “It’s also crucial to provide a body to provide admin and support to oil the wheels. No matter how much senior support there is from the partners, they have their day jobs to deliver on.”
Roles says the project’s aims include hosting local artist residencies and major international sculpture exhibitions. It may use volunteer guides to broaden the institutions’ audiences.
The members of the partnership, known collectively as the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, have complementary strengths, according to Roles.
Working together
“The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a unique setting to show sculpture, the Hepworth Wakefield is a wonderful exhibition space, the Henry Moore Institute has a good academic reputation, and Leeds Art Gallery has an extended collection but limited space to display it,” he says.
Simon Wallis, the director of the Hepworth Wakefield, which won the £100,000 Art Fund Museum of the Year prize in July, says the group has built on the area’s historic relationship to sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore and strong sculpture collections.
“I think we would only thrive if we worked with near neighbours,” he says. “It helps that we’re in the same region but not in the same city. We are all longstanding friends and have the shared DNA of sculpture. There’s something powerful about having coalesced around one art form.”
Wallis says longevity, sharing of knowledge, talent retention in the region, community outreach, and audience and collections growth are among the members’ shared aims.
Godfrey Worsdale, the director of the Henry Moore Foundation, says all partnerships involve a degree of uncertainty, although the group has a long-established working relationship.
Element of risk
“All partnerships involve an element of risk because you don’t know an organisation until you’ve partnered with it,” he says. “You may admire it from afar, but when you share an initiative with a partner organisation, you quickly realise the intricacies.”
Worsdale says there are “few unknowns” in this particular arrangement. “Though we are setting ourselves challenges we haven’t set before, we have the comfort of having got to know one another,” he adds.
The Hepworth Wakefield is also partnering with the Henry Moore Institute on an acquisition scheme with the Contemporary Art Society, according to Worsdale.
“We need to know we can depend on one another, and that when one partner says they will do something, it will happen,” he says.