The great outdoors
Peter Murray tells Felicity Heywood how he has spent nearly 30 years carving out Yorkshire Sculpture Park's reputation as a cultural venue of international importance
It is 29 years since Peter Murray became the first director of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP). And now, still the director, he is in a position to say that his vision is pretty much complete.
The open-air attraction that began life with donations from internationally famous artists such as Barbara Hepworth has always tried to keep the art in tune with the spirit of the landscape at its core.
But the size of the space it occupies on the 18th-century Bretton Estate near Wakefield is something that has significantly altered. Until recently the YSP Trust was just one of the owners of land on the 500-acre estate. But Murray wanted to develop a single vision for the landscape, so a plan to find an integrated approach to the use and management of the area was drawn up.
As a result of this, in July 1999 arts council lottery cash enabled the trust to buy up the south end of the estate, known as Longside, for £1.5m. It was then able to set up temporary and permanent installation projects on the land (237 acres), which had been in private ownership for centuries.
The Longside Gallery is shared by YSP and the Hayward Gallery, which uses the space to show sculpture from the Arts Council Collection, which it manages on behalf of Arts Council England. The arts council moved its 500-strong collection of sculptures from London to Longside in June 2003.
Murray says acquiring Longside was the icing on the cake for the park: 'The landscape has been put together by generations over a long, long period of time and that should be respected. That doesn't mean it won't change; it's got to change. It was developed as a pleasure park for a very small group of people. Now the emphasis is on access. We wanted to get hold of this land to ensure that it is for the people. It's not a private place anymore.'
Another recent success for the park was last year's opening of a new indoor exhibition space, the £3.5m Underground Gallery. It was designed by the architects Feilden Clegg Bradley and has made the four-strong shortlist for this year's £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize. It has already won two Royal Institute of British Architects awards.
In 1977 Murray was the principal lecturer in art education at Bretton Hall College, which is on the estate. He was originally a painter, but gave it up as a career because 'I don't think I had whatever it is you need' and went into teaching. Here, he says, he got the best of both worlds - and he came at it from the fundamental belief that a child's education is imbalanced if art is not a part of it.
'I was fascinated by the whole business of how you introduce children to art,' he explains. 'I wanted to look at the aesthetic contribution to children's development.' So along with his students at Bretton, he began researching ways to do this and out of that came the idea for sculpture in an open-air setting.
In the 1960s, Murray was involved in the arts movement Centre 42, a trade union campaign that was started by the playwright Arnold Wesker to bring art to the British public. And he became
particularly interested in promoting art in alternative spaces. At around the same time, Murray was also exploring, as part of the Wakefield Festival, art in the open air and in unorthodox places such as car showrooms.
But, Murray says, getting people interested in the YSP idea wasn't easy at all. The grounds had never been open to the public and Murray at first found it difficult to get the authorities onside. 'In 1977, contemporary sculpture, particularly sculpture in the open air, did not have that much appeal.' It was seen as controversial to open up a private park to the public and place sculpture in it.
'The first few years of the sculpture park we really did work on the politics - that was vital,' says Murray. Understanding that students and staff at the college had never before had to share their space with the public, pleasing Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, which owned the college at that time, and ensuring the park was supported and financed regionally and nationally were all considerations.
Attracting big players to the boardroom was less of a problem. His first set of trustees included Alan Bowness, the son-in-law of Barbara Hepworth and the chairman of the Hepworth Estate. Henry Moore was the founding patron and, as it coincided with the beginnings of his own foundation, he also contributed some cash towards YSP. With £1,000 in the bank and a belly full of ideas, YSP was born.
Artists with permanent works at YSP include Lynn Chadwick, Richard Serra, Sol LeWitt and Anthony Caro. YSP also houses a collection of Moore, Hepworth and William Turnbull sculptures. With three indoor galleries and nine distinct open-air spaces, YSP showcases an average of ten exhibitions, displays and projects a year. About half feature the work of international artists.
From the beginning, Murray made it his business to attract artists from outside the UK. This was partly because when he was setting up the park he had to look to the international community, as no institution in Britain had done anything similar.
Advice came from the Kröller-Möller Museum in the Netherlands and the Louisiana Museum in Denmark. Through them he understood that even if you are inside a building, there still has to be an awareness of the landscape.
The additional buildings, the Longside Gallery, the Underground Gallery and the visitor centre (which houses the offices, library and restaurant) are unassuming but beautiful structures. 'Our buildings are very discreet,' says Murray. 'I like to think of them as a pencil line on the landscape so you hardly notice them.'
Murray is proud of his international record: 'If you put us within an international context we have a strong brand and are viewed favourably. There isn't an exhibition we can't get, if we secure the funding.'
While apologising if he sounds conceited, he also says: 'The majority of artists say their work has never been exhibited better than at YSP.' He is still invited across the world to advise how to site art in the landscape.
The trust now employs 80 people and is a far cry from its 'one-man-and-his-dog' origins. But Murray says he is still very much a hands-on director. He sites most of the exhibitions, though he now does it alongside his team of technical curators.
He is still at the forefront of choosing which artists exhibit at the park, taking into consideration whether the sculptures can be maintained, the fit with the landscape and even the effect of the livestock roaming the fields - recently a piece, on loan from the Chillida Foundation at Zabalaga in Spain, had sheep rubbing up against it causing the lower part to rust. It will need to be repaired before it can go on show.
It takes about £2m to run YSP each year depending on the programme. About 40 per cent of this is fundraised. Core support comes from Arts Council England (£1m), Wakefield Metropolitan District Council (£250,000), the funding body West Yorkshire Grants (£48,000), plus there is money from Henry Moore Foundation, which varies year-to-year depending on the programme. There is a separate budget for maintaining the works of art.
It may seem that Murray has refocused his sights and made the new buildings and galleries a priority, but he cannot be accused of being any less committed to the landscape. He says the new buildings are partly to give visitors somewhere to go when the weather isn't so good, but there is also the need for a competitive edge: 'To be one of the world leaders,' Murray says, 'we have got to have professional facilities.'
The current James Turrell light installation in the Underground Gallery is complemented by an outdoor Turrell skyspace - the first contemporary commission by the National Art Collections Fund. This opened at the end of last month in the Grade II-listed deer shelter on the site.
Running at Longside until the end of next month is 60: an exhibition of British sculpture from the Arts Council Collection to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
Juxtaposing Hirst with Hepworth, it will complement the existing arts council sculptures now at the YSP. Next year, for its 30th anniversary, YSP is planning an Andy Goldsworthy retrospective that Murray says will cover the whole park.
And there could be more plans, given that Bretton Hall College, which became part of the University of Leeds five years ago, will be leaving in summer 2007. This will potentially give Murray another site to realign with the rest of the park.
Murray says that he has no plans to move jobs; he is there for the long haul, probably beyond retirement. 'As founding director I would like to enjoy working within the new galleries and spaces we have created.'
It is little wonder he wants to stay. YSP has managed to put itself on a strong footing on a regional, national and, most strikingly, international level.
'We became a major visitor attraction without moving away from our core existence - art,' Murray concludes.'We have never compromised.'
The open-air attraction that began life with donations from internationally famous artists such as Barbara Hepworth has always tried to keep the art in tune with the spirit of the landscape at its core.
But the size of the space it occupies on the 18th-century Bretton Estate near Wakefield is something that has significantly altered. Until recently the YSP Trust was just one of the owners of land on the 500-acre estate. But Murray wanted to develop a single vision for the landscape, so a plan to find an integrated approach to the use and management of the area was drawn up.
As a result of this, in July 1999 arts council lottery cash enabled the trust to buy up the south end of the estate, known as Longside, for £1.5m. It was then able to set up temporary and permanent installation projects on the land (237 acres), which had been in private ownership for centuries.
The Longside Gallery is shared by YSP and the Hayward Gallery, which uses the space to show sculpture from the Arts Council Collection, which it manages on behalf of Arts Council England. The arts council moved its 500-strong collection of sculptures from London to Longside in June 2003.
Murray says acquiring Longside was the icing on the cake for the park: 'The landscape has been put together by generations over a long, long period of time and that should be respected. That doesn't mean it won't change; it's got to change. It was developed as a pleasure park for a very small group of people. Now the emphasis is on access. We wanted to get hold of this land to ensure that it is for the people. It's not a private place anymore.'
Another recent success for the park was last year's opening of a new indoor exhibition space, the £3.5m Underground Gallery. It was designed by the architects Feilden Clegg Bradley and has made the four-strong shortlist for this year's £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize. It has already won two Royal Institute of British Architects awards.
In 1977 Murray was the principal lecturer in art education at Bretton Hall College, which is on the estate. He was originally a painter, but gave it up as a career because 'I don't think I had whatever it is you need' and went into teaching. Here, he says, he got the best of both worlds - and he came at it from the fundamental belief that a child's education is imbalanced if art is not a part of it.
'I was fascinated by the whole business of how you introduce children to art,' he explains. 'I wanted to look at the aesthetic contribution to children's development.' So along with his students at Bretton, he began researching ways to do this and out of that came the idea for sculpture in an open-air setting.
In the 1960s, Murray was involved in the arts movement Centre 42, a trade union campaign that was started by the playwright Arnold Wesker to bring art to the British public. And he became
particularly interested in promoting art in alternative spaces. At around the same time, Murray was also exploring, as part of the Wakefield Festival, art in the open air and in unorthodox places such as car showrooms.
But, Murray says, getting people interested in the YSP idea wasn't easy at all. The grounds had never been open to the public and Murray at first found it difficult to get the authorities onside. 'In 1977, contemporary sculpture, particularly sculpture in the open air, did not have that much appeal.' It was seen as controversial to open up a private park to the public and place sculpture in it.
'The first few years of the sculpture park we really did work on the politics - that was vital,' says Murray. Understanding that students and staff at the college had never before had to share their space with the public, pleasing Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, which owned the college at that time, and ensuring the park was supported and financed regionally and nationally were all considerations.
Attracting big players to the boardroom was less of a problem. His first set of trustees included Alan Bowness, the son-in-law of Barbara Hepworth and the chairman of the Hepworth Estate. Henry Moore was the founding patron and, as it coincided with the beginnings of his own foundation, he also contributed some cash towards YSP. With £1,000 in the bank and a belly full of ideas, YSP was born.
Artists with permanent works at YSP include Lynn Chadwick, Richard Serra, Sol LeWitt and Anthony Caro. YSP also houses a collection of Moore, Hepworth and William Turnbull sculptures. With three indoor galleries and nine distinct open-air spaces, YSP showcases an average of ten exhibitions, displays and projects a year. About half feature the work of international artists.
From the beginning, Murray made it his business to attract artists from outside the UK. This was partly because when he was setting up the park he had to look to the international community, as no institution in Britain had done anything similar.
Advice came from the Kröller-Möller Museum in the Netherlands and the Louisiana Museum in Denmark. Through them he understood that even if you are inside a building, there still has to be an awareness of the landscape.
The additional buildings, the Longside Gallery, the Underground Gallery and the visitor centre (which houses the offices, library and restaurant) are unassuming but beautiful structures. 'Our buildings are very discreet,' says Murray. 'I like to think of them as a pencil line on the landscape so you hardly notice them.'
Murray is proud of his international record: 'If you put us within an international context we have a strong brand and are viewed favourably. There isn't an exhibition we can't get, if we secure the funding.'
While apologising if he sounds conceited, he also says: 'The majority of artists say their work has never been exhibited better than at YSP.' He is still invited across the world to advise how to site art in the landscape.
The trust now employs 80 people and is a far cry from its 'one-man-and-his-dog' origins. But Murray says he is still very much a hands-on director. He sites most of the exhibitions, though he now does it alongside his team of technical curators.
He is still at the forefront of choosing which artists exhibit at the park, taking into consideration whether the sculptures can be maintained, the fit with the landscape and even the effect of the livestock roaming the fields - recently a piece, on loan from the Chillida Foundation at Zabalaga in Spain, had sheep rubbing up against it causing the lower part to rust. It will need to be repaired before it can go on show.
It takes about £2m to run YSP each year depending on the programme. About 40 per cent of this is fundraised. Core support comes from Arts Council England (£1m), Wakefield Metropolitan District Council (£250,000), the funding body West Yorkshire Grants (£48,000), plus there is money from Henry Moore Foundation, which varies year-to-year depending on the programme. There is a separate budget for maintaining the works of art.
It may seem that Murray has refocused his sights and made the new buildings and galleries a priority, but he cannot be accused of being any less committed to the landscape. He says the new buildings are partly to give visitors somewhere to go when the weather isn't so good, but there is also the need for a competitive edge: 'To be one of the world leaders,' Murray says, 'we have got to have professional facilities.'
The current James Turrell light installation in the Underground Gallery is complemented by an outdoor Turrell skyspace - the first contemporary commission by the National Art Collections Fund. This opened at the end of last month in the Grade II-listed deer shelter on the site.
Running at Longside until the end of next month is 60: an exhibition of British sculpture from the Arts Council Collection to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
Juxtaposing Hirst with Hepworth, it will complement the existing arts council sculptures now at the YSP. Next year, for its 30th anniversary, YSP is planning an Andy Goldsworthy retrospective that Murray says will cover the whole park.
And there could be more plans, given that Bretton Hall College, which became part of the University of Leeds five years ago, will be leaving in summer 2007. This will potentially give Murray another site to realign with the rest of the park.
Murray says that he has no plans to move jobs; he is there for the long haul, probably beyond retirement. 'As founding director I would like to enjoy working within the new galleries and spaces we have created.'
It is little wonder he wants to stay. YSP has managed to put itself on a strong footing on a regional, national and, most strikingly, international level.
'We became a major visitor attraction without moving away from our core existence - art,' Murray concludes.'We have never compromised.'