The Art of Yorkshire Garden from Welcome to Yorkshire has won a Silver medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The garden celebrates Yorkshire’s artists and those that have used Yorkshire as their muse such as Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, J M W Turner, David Hockney and Andy Goldsworthy.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “This is a fantastic achievement in just our second year exhibiting at Chelsea. We have been rushed off our feet today with visitors and well wishers clambering for a view of our award winning garden. We have Barbara Hepworth’s granddaughter Sophie Bowness visiting us today, which is wonderful timing on the day we won Silver.”
Gary Verity
Bowness was visiting the garden to see her grandmother’s 1958 sculpture Ascending Form, on loan from the Arts Council Collection, which is the centre-piece of the Art of Yorkshire design. It is the first time an original Hepworth sculpture has been exhibited at the world famous horticultural show.
Kate Dundas, Landscape Architect at Gillespies, Leeds, said: “The response to the garden has been overwhelming; visitors to the show have been incredibly enthusiastic about the design and what it represents. We are thrilled to have received a Silver medal; this is a proud moment for us and Yorkshire.”
Gary Verity added: “With the opening of The Hepworth Wakefield last weekend Yorkshire is officially the European Capital of Sculpture and the aim of the rest of this week is to encourage as many people as possible to visit Yorkshire and explore our county’s great galleries and gardens.”
Cluny Macpherson, Regional Director of Arts Council England, added: “Yorkshire is a place of inspiration for artists and full of opportunities to experience great art. Barbara Hepworth’s work will continue to be centre stage in Yorkshire following The Hepworth Wakefield opening. This landmark new gallery in the place of her birth will show rarely-seen works by Hepworth as well as a changing programme of the best contemporary artists.”
