Yorkshire is about to get a major shot in the arm with the debut of a sculpture festival of global significance
God’s Own County—well, one of the regions of the world that claim that appealing appellation—is in danger of becoming rather smug. It already has more Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere in the UK outside of London, ivy-covered medieval pubs, castles to rival the fanciest French chateaux, windswept dales and a coast as spectacular as the shores of any Scandinavian archipelago. And now it’s building an enviable reputation as a cultural hotspot.
Anyone flying to Europe this summer should consider swapping yet another week in Saint Tropez for a holiday in England’s wildest county, Yorkshire. There they will find mouth-watering meals galore and hikes through the dales and glens that were brought to life by the Brontë sisters—and now they will also have the chance to mosey around one of the most culturally important festivals to land on British soil in decades, Yorkshire Sculpture International (YSI).
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A 200-hectare haven
The UK’s largest event dedicated to celebrating sculpture, the inaugural YSI runs for 100 days from June 22 in Yorkshire’s “sculpture triangle,” which encompasses the Henry Moore Institute, the Hepworth Wakefield art museum, the Leeds Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. As well as showcasing contemporary sculpture, it will illustrate how “blimmin’ great” Yorkshire is.
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The sculpture park alone makes the long-haul flight worth it. With 200 hectares of fields, formal gardens, woodland, overgrown flowerbeds and lakes, it is an extraordinary place where woolly sheep wander freely among Henry Moore bronzes, and highland cattle and fallow deer rub their flanks against Barbara Hepworth statues.
Founded in 1977, the park has grown over the years to absorb nearby farms and the grounds of the aristocratic Bretton Hall, an 18th-century Palladian mansion near Wakefield.
