How The Hepworth Wakefield is Celebrating its 15th Anniversary
The Hepworth Wakefield is celebrating its 15th anniversary
The Hepworth Wakefield’s story starts with the original Wakefield Art Gallery which was established in 1934, supporting artists including Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore early in their careers. ‘It was really trying to show the very best contemporary art, but using art in a way to help people understand modern life,’ says executive director Olivia Colling. ‘That's something we really try and maintain today.’
The Hepworth Wakefield opened in a brand-new art gallery in 2011, designed by Sir David Chipperfield. ‘The catalyst for that was this enormous gift of artworks from Barbara Hepworth’s family,’ explains Olivia. ‘They were just too large to show in the existing gallery. It's an incredible architectural building but I think it was quite divisive when it was first built because it doesn't look like any other. Now it's one of our real strengths.’
Olivia has worked with The Hepworth Wakefield for more than 10 years, and today it is home to Wakefield’s art collection including works by LS Lowry, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, as well as work by contemporary artists. The Hepworth Wakefield Garden, a free public garden designed by internationally-renowned landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, has been a popular addition to the gallery’s offering, and displays outdoor sculptures.
‘When we first opened it was just a strip of grass next to the gallery, but we really felt we could provide a real oasis in the heart of Wakefield for people to come and reflect,’ says Olivia. ‘It was quite odd timing because it was in 2020 when it had its first big spring bloom, but none of us were there. It was amazing because people started to use it as their own garden (when you could go out for one hour a day), and it became part of people's routines. It really did help The Hepworth anchor itself within the community.’
Being at the heart of the community is key to The Hepworth Wakefield. ‘We act like a big national gallery in that we want to be known globally, but having really local roots and recognising that we were born in Yorkshire, we are very much part of Yorkshire, and therefore need to be important to the people of Yorkshire,’ Olivia adds. ‘Everybody at The Hepworth Wakefield is pulling in the same direction. We know we're a visitor attraction. We want everybody who walks through the door to have the most amazing day out and it really does feel like all the team are there to help achieve that for people.’
The gallery is named after Barbara Hepworth, who was born in Wakefield and went on to become one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Her story is very much a part of the gallery’s own story. ‘She was a woman working at a time when most sculptors were men,’ Olivia explains. ‘I was reading an article recently about how the national papers would be talking about her success. This is a woman who's got big public sculptures outside places like the UN building in New York, but her story is all the more surprising because she was a frail Yorkshire woman. I quite like that about her. I think we try and reflect some of that essence in that it's quite surprising to have such a world-leading art gallery on the outside of Wakefield city centre. That's one of the things that makes us really unique.’
Engaging exhibitions, makers’ fairs and workshops mean there’s always something new happening and this was recognised when the gallery was awarded the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2017. ‘That really gave the team a boost,’ Olivia says. ‘The director of the Art Fund at the time had this brilliant quote where he said, “it's the museum everyone would dream of having on their doorstep”. For me, that's one of the things that we're really trying to do – bring the very best art that we possibly can to Yorkshire, so that everybody in the North can experience outstanding art. We are trying to be that local resource, both for schools to use our incredible learning space, but also as a great day out.’
The team are always looking at new ways to strengthen the connection with the community and that includes plans to create a garden workshop, semi-covered yard and green-roofed gallery store designed by Mary Duggan Architects, meaning the gallery can offer more volunteering opportunities.
To celebrate its 15th anniversary, The Hepworth Wakefield is hosting a birthday party on 22nd May when The Hepworth Makefield Market will also launch. Meanwhile, Rhythm, Dance and Everything: The Body and Performance from Hepworth to Now is uniting some of Hepworth’s most iconic sculptures with works by artists working in her legacy; Modern Art and Modern Life: Highlights from Wakefield’s 20th Century Collection highlights key works in Wakefield’s collection; and A Living Collection continues to showcase works that have been donated or fundraised for. The collection continues to grow. ‘We’ve looked at what the historic gaps are but also the artists that we should be collecting who are working today,’ says Olivia. ‘It’s all the more of a big achievement because it's all done through finding people who'll donate to us and fundraising activity.’
Upcoming international exhibitions include Mrinalini Mukherjee: Unbound Forms – Women sculptors of India and Bangladesh, and Lewis Hammond: Crystal in the Shade from 23rd May (his first museum presentation in the UK). ‘This is something that we've really become known for – spotting artists at the right moment in their career where they are ready for a first major solo show,’ Olivia adds. ‘We've done that with lots of different artists who've gone on to do amazing things. We did the “barbershop” exhibition with Hurvin Anderson about three years ago and he's just opened his huge retrospective at Tate this year.
‘This autumn, we're working with a contemporary artist called Ida Ekblad who has a studio in Oslo and creates huge, colourful sculptures and really big, colourful paintings, which I think people will love. We recognise that people don't particularly know her in the UK. But alongside that we've got a show by Marc Chagall. We're working with Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster, and they're lending us a huge amount of works of Chagall’s. We can introduce people to contemporary artists too. It’s about getting people to trust us to take them on a journey.’
The Hepworth Wakefield is one of the four founding partners of Yorkshire Sculpture International. Together with Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, they work to build on the legacy of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore to position West Yorkshire as the capital of sculpture in the UK. This is leading towards a West Yorkshire-wide celebration of sculpture in the summer of next year.
Looking to the future, The Hepworth Wakefield will continue to focus on bringing the best artwork to West Yorkshire, and aims to bring down barriers so everyone feels welcome to come and appreciate art.
