Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. The sculpture park occupies the parkland of Bretton Hall.
History
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, opened in 1977, was the UK's first sculpture park based on the temporary open air exhibitions organised in London parks from the 1940s to 1970s by the Arts Council and London County Council.In 2026 the park appointed Joe Hill as its Chief Executive.
Exhibition spaces
YSP has a number of settings where its collection is displayed. The "gallery without walls" has a changing exhibition programme, rather than permanent display as seen in other UK sculpture parks such as Grizedale Forest.Parkland
The park is situated in the grounds of Bretton Hall, an 18th-century estate which was a family home until the mid-20th century when it became Bretton Hall College. Follies, landscape features and architectural structures from the 18th century can be seen around the park including the deer park and deer shelter, an ice house, and a camellia house. Artists working at YSP, such as Andy Goldsworthy in 2007, take their inspiration from its architectural, historical or natural environment.Since the 1990s, YSP has made use of indoor exhibition spaces, initially a Bothy Gallery and a temporary tent-like structure called the Pavilion Gallery. After an extensive refurbishment and expansion, YSP has added an underground gallery space in the Bothy garden, and exhibition spaces at Longside. Its programme consists of contemporary and modern sculpture. British sculpture is well represented in the past exhibition programme and semi-permanent installations. Many British sculptors prominent in the 1950s and 1960s have been the subject of solo exhibitions at YSP, including Lynn Chadwick, Austin Wright, Phillip King, Eduardo Paolozzi, Hans Josephsohn, and Kenneth Armitage. Exhibitions tend to be monographic – rather than group or thematic.
The redundant Grade II* listed St Bartholomew's Chapel, West Bretton, built by William Wentworth in 1744, has been restored as gallery space.