About

A unique collaboration between four of Yorkshire’s leading art institutions – the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The partner galleries work together to promote sculpture in the region, celebrating the rich history of Yorkshire as the birthplace of pioneering sculptors, including Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Damien Hirst and as the home of sculpture.

Summer 2019 saw the first Yorkshire Sculpture International, and partners are discussing plans for the next sculpture festival in West Yorkshire in 2026. In the interim years, we have hosted the 2021 Summer Programme, with exhibitions, talks and events across the partner venues working with Yorkshire based artists. Yorkshire Sculpture International has evolved into artist support beyond the public programme, with the Sculpture Network taking place in 2020 and 2022, providing artists talks, workshops, mentoring and fostering a community of artists working in sculpture in our region.

The first Yorkshire Sculpture International in 2019 was the UK’s largest dedicated sculpture festival, a series of exhibitions, international commissions, events and learning programmes – with sculpture in its broadest forms on display across the four major galleries and outdoors in Leeds and Wakefield. Responding to artist Phyllida Barlow’s statement that “Sculpture is the most anthropological of the art forms”, Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019 featured major new commissions in city centre locations.

Yorkshire Sculpture International builds on the growing profile of Yorkshire as a cultural destination.

All four galleries are only a 30-minute drive, bus or train ride away from each other in Leeds and Wakefield. The Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery can be found next door to each on The Headrow in Leeds.

Please see individual venue websites for location, suggested transport, directions, access and parking facilities.