WAKEFIELD.- Four world-class art galleries, including two Art Fund Museum of the Year winners, which form the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle have secured funding of £750,000 for a groundbreaking new project – an international sculpture triennial, Yorkshire Sculpture International.

Thanks to investment from Arts Council England’s ‘Ambition for Excellence’ programme, the Triangle – which brings together Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park – will deliver its most ambitious collaborative project to date.

Yorkshire Sculpture International – taking place from July to September 2019 across Leeds and Wakefield – will see collaborative artistic programming, talent and audience development, new outdoor commissions and international commissioning partnerships.

This major project will consolidate Yorkshire’s reputation as the best place to see contemporary and modern sculpture, building on the region’s unique, unrivalled history – as the birthplace of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore – and commitment to collecting, commissioning, exhibiting, studying and promoting sculpture.

It will greatly extend the reach and ambition of each organisation, sharing expertise and resources to build new alliances locally and internationally. Long term, the Triangle hopes to establish an international sculpture triennial.

The Leeds and Wakefield-based organisations will now begin phase one of their planning to bring the project to reality with an engagement programme beginning in July 2018.

Godfrey Worsdale, Director of the Henry Moore Foundation, said: “Since the early twentieth century, Yorkshire has been associated with the development of sculpture. Over recent years, Leeds Art Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Henry Moore Institute and The Hepworth Wakefield have brought collective energy and expertise to the subject through exhibitions, commissions, collections, archiving, and academic research.

Sarah Maxfield, Area Director North, Arts Council England said: “Yorkshire has long been celebrated for its wealth of world class sculpture and I’m delighted that we are funding this project through our ‘Ambition for Excellence’ programme. ‘Yorkshire Sculpture International’ will illustrate how the region is a world centre for cultural excellence in sculpture and I’m looking forward to seeing the new commissions”.

“The Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle is now regarded as an unrivalled British centre for sculpture and Arts Council England’s support for a new international sculpture triennial will enable this collaboration to take a very significant step forward and make an increasingly significant contribution to the UK’s cultural landscape.”