The Hepworth Wakefield gallery in West Yorkshire will launch a range of initiatives next year to mark its fifth anniversary, including a new £30,000 biennial prize for sculpture and the winning design for a 6,000 sq. m riverside garden.
The major regional UK gallery opened in May 2011 at a cost of £35m, and has since attracted 1.4 million visitors. In 2013, it launched a new 600 sq. m contemporary art space, The Calder, housed in a former 19th-century textile mill.
The sculpture prize, to be awarded to a British or UK-based artist, will be funded by philanthropists such as the London-based collector David Roberts and the Hepworth Wakefield chair of trustees, David Liddiment.
“It is open to artists of any age, at any stage in their career, and their selection will be based on the significance of their contribution to sculpture in its broadest definition,” says a spokeswoman. The four shortlisted artists will present their work in an exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield in October 2016, and the winner will be announced the following month.
Meanwhile, four landscape designers – Christopher Bradley-Hole and Brita von Schoenaich (joint submission), Tom Stuart-Smith, Cleve West and Peter Wirtz – are in the running to design the proposed public garden. The winner will be announced in January after a public consultation.
The exhibition schedule next year includes the first UK survey of paintings by the late UK artist Stanley Spencer for 15 years. The programme also includes a display of major works in April donated by the former BBC journalist Tim Sayer. Artists represented in his collection include Henry Moore, Sean Scully, Antony Gormley and Louise Bourgeois.
In June, the UK publication Museums Journal reported that the gallery restructured its workforce and operations as part of a new business plan designed to increase profitability and boost visitor numbers. The venue receives funding from Wakefield Council, Arts Council England, charities and private sponsors.