Great works of art in the great outdoors
EVERY week, our Holiday Hero NEIL SIMPSON takes an in-depth look at a brilliant holiday topic, doing all the legwork so you don’t have to. This week: sculptures in the great outdoors.
WORKS by some of the world’s best-known artists can be seen in sculpture parks across the UK this summer. While some of these outdoor galleries are free to enter, most allow dogs and picnics, and others even have places to stay within sight of the exhibits.
At the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield, you’ll find works by Henry Moore, Robert Indiana, Ai Weiwei and Sophie Ryder scattered around the 500-acre site, along with four huge pieces by Damien Hirst.
Entry costs from £6, while under18s are free (ysp.org.uk).
Barbara Hepworth has works on display nearby at the free Hepworth Wakefield Garden, where a Sheila Hicks sculpture has just been unveiled (hepworthwakefield.org).
Bagden Hall Hotel is near both parks, with double rooms from £75 per night (classiclodges.co.uk).
Antony Gormley and Lynn Chadwick are among the big names with works in the 350-acre Sainsbury Centre Sculpture Park near Norwich. It is part of the University of East Anglia campus that includes a Norman Foster-designed gallery with works by Picasso, Francis Bacon and more. Entry is free to both the sculpture park and indoor gallery (sainsburycentre.ac.uk).
The university’s Broadview Lodge lets you stay on campus in en suite, double or family rooms from £65 per night (uea.ac.uk).
Tracey Emin’s vast 19ft bronze sculpture, I Lay Here For You, and Anish Kapoor’s caged vortex, called Suck, lead the world-beating pieces in the wooded 120-acre Jupiter Artland park near Edinburgh.
Other pieces in the grounds of an old country house include Marc Quinn’s colourful Love Bomb orchid and a spider’s web set amid the trees. Adult entry costs £10, children £6 (jupiterartland.org).
Book in to The Artist’s House, a self-catering cottage deep in the heart of the park that is stuffed with a private art collection. Sleeps six and costs from £1,500 for threenight breaks (jupiterartland.org).
The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail is a 4½-mile walk through Gloucestershire’s ancient woods dotted with sculptures. Favourites include Cathedral, a 15ft stained-glass window suspended in the trees, and House, a steel structure set on long legs just below the canopy level (forestofdean-sculpture.org.uk).
Dome Garden has rooms in modern log cabins from £75 a night (domegarden.co.uk).