Not so long ago museums might have been inclined to repurpose underutilised courtyards as new galleries, create a new wing on an adjacent strip of grass, or use a redundant area for storage. Thankfully, for those who love being in the fresh air, museums across the country are now opting to embrace their outdoor spaces.
Gardens and parks have been an important part of what the heritage sector has offered for many years, with the National Trust, English Heritage and many privately owned historic properties all emphasising the appeal of their outdoor spaces. But a variety of new projects, from multimillion pound developments to grassroot community initiatives, suggest museums and galleries are increasingly getting in on the act as they rejuvenate their green spaces to engage audiences in interesting ways.
This summer alone, new schemes will include the May reopening of the Garden Museum in Lambeth in south London, which features a courtyard garden by landscape designer Dan Pearson, and a butterfly house for London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens. There are also artistic projects by Alex Hartley and Tom James for Compton Verney in Warwickshire and by Tony Heywood and Alison Condie for the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings.
Meanwhile, ambitious future garden projects are under way at the Hepworth Wakefield and the Natural History Museum in London, both of which are in the planning and funding stages.
Bringing the outdoors in
In 2011, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter completed a major redevelopment that reconnected the museum to the parkland and Roman wall behind its building by creating a new garden entrance and a natural outdoor amphitheatre, which is used for storytelling and events. The same year, the Holburne Museum in Bath completed a similar scheme at the back of its building, creating new spaces and a cafe overlooking a garden and surrounding parkland.
In 2015, the Whitworth in Manchester reopened after a £15m project that unblocked the view of the park for visitors in the building and created a welcoming entrance.
Connecting the museum with the park was about linking up with the local community, as well as an opportunity to show sculpture and work with artists in fresh ways. A trail of sculptures through the park includes works by Christine Borland and Cyprien Galliard, and there is a new permanent commission by Anya Gallaccio.
The museum has used the outdoor space for live performances, most notably during the Manchester International Festival and its opening event in 2015. Schoolchildren learn in studios that open onto an art garden designed by Sarah Price, which from the outset has provided a space for local community activities. One of the most significant was Grow, which promoted the benefits of horticultural activities for mental health and wellbeing.
The idea that gardens can act as an interface for museums has also been embraced by the Horniman. A 2012 redevelopment transformed 16 acres of surrounding land, allowing the museum to connect the indoors with the outdoors, both physically and intellectually. Interpretation runs throughout the gardens, linking back to points of interest in the collections indoors, and the outdoor spaces are used for events and learning programmes. This summer, the Horniman will open a butterfly house in an underused outdoor space, complementing its living collections.
“The gardens attract a wider audience for the museum,” says Victoria Pinnington, the director of communications and income generation at the Horniman.
“Since transforming the gardens, the museum has seen a 50% increase in visitors and we know that it’s because people who don’t always feel comfortable in museums find the gardens less intimidating.
Our job is to encourage those visitors into the building.”
New territory
As part of the Garden Museum’s redevelopment, Dan Pearson has created a space to encourage visitors to look more closely at plants. Designed to have the atmosphere of a private garden, it will be a public space, free for all and visible to those passing by the museum. A new play area and two pavilions dedicated to learning will greatly enhance what the museum can offer visitors and schools.
“It’s important to know from the outset what you want for your garden and that you consider its long-term maintenance,” says Christopher Woodward, the director of the Garden Museum, who has been involved in several urban garden projects and has advised on museum gardens.
He says the High Line in New York, a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side, led to a shift in thinking about gardens among those working in the visual arts. The Whitney Museum of American Art sits at one end of the High Line.
Art galleries and artists are often keen to find inventive ways to use outside spaces. One example is the South London Gallery, which asked Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco to create a new permanent garden.
“This presented a unique opportunity to extend my work into new territory,” Orozco says. “From my first visit I was impressed by the gallery’s commitment to its local community and neighbourhood. I was also intrigued by the relationship between the garden space and its different audiences, and the idea of creating something that could provide an inspiring platform for all of them.”
His garden design plays with the idea of the urban ruin and will gradually fill with different grasses, creepers and lots of fragrant plants.
Artistic intervention
Two temporary artistic projects this summer require local volunteers to help maintain them. At Compton Verney artist duo Alex Hartley and Tom James have built a geodesic structure from old doors, furniture and scaffolding boards. Standing in direct contrast to the manor house of Compton Verney, it is being lived in by volunteer caretakers and will host workshops to teach people skills for living a simpler life in preparation for a hypothetical future of high sea levels and economic collapse. At the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings, Heywood and Condie have created Headland, a horticultural landscape installation in the courtyard.
Landscape designers are also finding themselves in demand. Arabella Lennox-Boyd has completed a scheme that gently flows round the architectural form of the Zaha Hadid-designed Serpentine Sackler Gallery, and at Hauser & Wirth in Somerset, Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf has block-planted swaths of coloured grasses that unfold as far as the eye can see. The meadow of 26,000 herbaceous perennials has become a huge attraction for coachloads of garden enthusiasts.
Creating a distinct attraction and broadening audiences is behind the plans for a new garden outside the Hepworth Wakefield by Tom Stuart-Smith. The garden designer has previously worked with the Royal Academy of Arts in London to turn a dank, shady courtyard into an oasis in the heart of the city with the use of exotic palms and evergreen climbers. His plans for the Hepworth Wakefield will transform a large strip of underused land that runs next to the building and the river.
“Barbara Hepworth had an important relationship with the outdoors and this is a huge opportunity for us, from expanding our programme outdoors to giving our visitors more to do when they are here,” says Olivia Colling, the director of communications and development at the Hepworth Wakefield.
“We hope to involve artists and local communities in shaping a new play space for children. For us this isn’t just ‘nice to have’ but something that creates a more sustainable future.”
Clare Lilley, the director of programmes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the curator of the Frieze Sculpture Park in Regent’s Park, London, feels this pragmatic shift is a return to 18th- and 19th-century models that became unfashionable in the late-20th century.
She points to a select number of museums and galleries, such as the Serpentine and Holburne, that were originally designed as galleries in parks. There’s also the Lady Lever Art Gallery in the Wirral and Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, which were built during the industrial revolution with gardens that visitors could enjoy.
“Our forebears recognised that gardens were an important part of our cultural experience,” Lilley says. “They allow an important connection with nature focused around the senses – the sense of smell and sight, and the feel of the elements on your skin. Outdoor spaces allow you to be yourself because they are more accessible and sociable, and are therefore places where people feel freer to have conversations. At Yorkshire Sculpture Park there is a community who visit that wouldn’t come just for the gallery.”
Nadine Thompson is a freelance writer
Gardens and parks have been an important part of what the heritage sector has offered for many years, with the National Trust, English Heritage and many privately owned historic properties all emphasising the appeal of their outdoor spaces. But a variety of new projects, from multimillion pound developments to grassroot community initiatives, suggest museums and galleries are increasingly getting in on the act as they rejuvenate their green spaces to engage audiences in interesting ways.
This summer alone, new schemes will include the May reopening of the Garden Museum in Lambeth in south London, which features a courtyard garden by landscape designer Dan Pearson, and a butterfly house for London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens. There are also artistic projects by Alex Hartley and Tom James for Compton Verney in Warwickshire and by Tony Heywood and Alison Condie for the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings.
Meanwhile, ambitious future garden projects are under way at the Hepworth Wakefield and the Natural History Museum in London, both of which are in the planning and funding stages.
Bringing the outdoors in
In 2011, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter completed a major redevelopment that reconnected the museum to the parkland and Roman wall behind its building by creating a new garden entrance and a natural outdoor amphitheatre, which is used for storytelling and events. The same year, the Holburne Museum in Bath completed a similar scheme at the back of its building, creating new spaces and a cafe overlooking a garden and surrounding parkland.
In 2015, the Whitworth in Manchester reopened after a £15m project that unblocked the view of the park for visitors in the building and created a welcoming entrance.
Connecting the museum with the park was about linking up with the local community, as well as an opportunity to show sculpture and work with artists in fresh ways. A trail of sculptures through the park includes works by Christine Borland and Cyprien Galliard, and there is a new permanent commission by Anya Gallaccio.
The museum has used the outdoor space for live performances, most notably during the Manchester International Festival and its opening event in 2015. Schoolchildren learn in studios that open onto an art garden designed by Sarah Price, which from the outset has provided a space for local community activities. One of the most significant was Grow, which promoted the benefits of horticultural activities for mental health and wellbeing.
The idea that gardens can act as an interface for museums has also been embraced by the Horniman. A 2012 redevelopment transformed 16 acres of surrounding land, allowing the museum to connect the indoors with the outdoors, both physically and intellectually. Interpretation runs throughout the gardens, linking back to points of interest in the collections indoors, and the outdoor spaces are used for events and learning programmes. This summer, the Horniman will open a butterfly house in an underused outdoor space, complementing its living collections.
“The gardens attract a wider audience for the museum,” says Victoria Pinnington, the director of communications and income generation at the Horniman.
“Since transforming the gardens, the museum has seen a 50% increase in visitors and we know that it’s because people who don’t always feel comfortable in museums find the gardens less intimidating.
Our job is to encourage those visitors into the building.”
It’s important to know what you want for your garden and that you consider its long-term maintenance”
New territory
As part of the Garden Museum’s redevelopment, Dan Pearson has created a space to encourage visitors to look more closely at plants. Designed to have the atmosphere of a private garden, it will be a public space, free for all and visible to those passing by the museum. A new play area and two pavilions dedicated to learning will greatly enhance what the museum can offer visitors and schools.
“It’s important to know from the outset what you want for your garden and that you consider its long-term maintenance,” says Christopher Woodward, the director of the Garden Museum, who has been involved in several urban garden projects and has advised on museum gardens.
He says the High Line in New York, a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side, led to a shift in thinking about gardens among those working in the visual arts. The Whitney Museum of American Art sits at one end of the High Line.
Art galleries and artists are often keen to find inventive ways to use outside spaces. One example is the South London Gallery, which asked Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco to create a new permanent garden.
“This presented a unique opportunity to extend my work into new territory,” Orozco says. “From my first visit I was impressed by the gallery’s commitment to its local community and neighbourhood. I was also intrigued by the relationship between the garden space and its different audiences, and the idea of creating something that could provide an inspiring platform for all of them.”
His garden design plays with the idea of the urban ruin and will gradually fill with different grasses, creepers and lots of fragrant plants.
Outdoor spaces allow you to be yourself because they are more accessible and sociable... where people feel freer to have conversations”
Artistic intervention
Two temporary artistic projects this summer require local volunteers to help maintain them. At Compton Verney artist duo Alex Hartley and Tom James have built a geodesic structure from old doors, furniture and scaffolding boards. Standing in direct contrast to the manor house of Compton Verney, it is being lived in by volunteer caretakers and will host workshops to teach people skills for living a simpler life in preparation for a hypothetical future of high sea levels and economic collapse. At the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings, Heywood and Condie have created Headland, a horticultural landscape installation in the courtyard.
Landscape designers are also finding themselves in demand. Arabella Lennox-Boyd has completed a scheme that gently flows round the architectural form of the Zaha Hadid-designed Serpentine Sackler Gallery, and at Hauser & Wirth in Somerset, Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf has block-planted swaths of coloured grasses that unfold as far as the eye can see. The meadow of 26,000 herbaceous perennials has become a huge attraction for coachloads of garden enthusiasts.
Creating a distinct attraction and broadening audiences is behind the plans for a new garden outside the Hepworth Wakefield by Tom Stuart-Smith. The garden designer has previously worked with the Royal Academy of Arts in London to turn a dank, shady courtyard into an oasis in the heart of the city with the use of exotic palms and evergreen climbers. His plans for the Hepworth Wakefield will transform a large strip of underused land that runs next to the building and the river.
“Barbara Hepworth had an important relationship with the outdoors and this is a huge opportunity for us, from expanding our programme outdoors to giving our visitors more to do when they are here,” says Olivia Colling, the director of communications and development at the Hepworth Wakefield.
“We hope to involve artists and local communities in shaping a new play space for children. For us this isn’t just ‘nice to have’ but something that creates a more sustainable future.”
Clare Lilley, the director of programmes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the curator of the Frieze Sculpture Park in Regent’s Park, London, feels this pragmatic shift is a return to 18th- and 19th-century models that became unfashionable in the late-20th century.
She points to a select number of museums and galleries, such as the Serpentine and Holburne, that were originally designed as galleries in parks. There’s also the Lady Lever Art Gallery in the Wirral and Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, which were built during the industrial revolution with gardens that visitors could enjoy.
“Our forebears recognised that gardens were an important part of our cultural experience,” Lilley says. “They allow an important connection with nature focused around the senses – the sense of smell and sight, and the feel of the elements on your skin. Outdoor spaces allow you to be yourself because they are more accessible and sociable, and are therefore places where people feel freer to have conversations. At Yorkshire Sculpture Park there is a community who visit that wouldn’t come just for the gallery.”
Nadine Thompson is a freelance writer
