Roche Court Sculpture Park and Gallery
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Roche Court Sculpture Park and Gallery, also known as New Art Centre Roche Court Sculpture Park and Gallery, is a sculpture garden and contemporary art gallery on the grounds of Roche Court, an early 19th-century country house in East Winterslow, Wiltshire, England. It was founded in 1958 by Madeleine Besborough (née Grand) as New Art Centre, a contemporary art gallery at 41, Sloane Street, London. In 1994, the gallery relocated to Wiltshire and a sculpture park was added. The gallery and sculpture park are open seven days a week. There is no admission fee.
History
[edit]The Sloane Street gallery was founded in 1958 by 22-year old Madeleine Grand (born 1935). The New Art Centre was a non-profit gallery initially that aimed to promote the work of young artists. About the early days in the London gallery, Besborough remarked: “The art world was very different when we started. There were barely any opportunities for the young to be offered exhibitions, and it was something I wanted to change. [...] The truth is that I didn’t have any money when I started. We managed to find a sponsor and a sandwich shop on Sloane Street, and we gutted it ourselves.”[1]
After a few years, the gallery abandoned its initial non-profit idealism and continued on a commercial basis. There were exhibitions of St Ives school artists and New Generation sculptors, and Bessborough invited provocative artists like Peter Logan, who was making kinetic sculptures, and Derek Jarman, who had members of The Royal Ballet dancing nude in the basement.[1]
In 1963, Grand married Arthur Ponsonby, 11th Earl of Bessborough (1912–2002), after which she was known as the Countess of Bessborough. She continued to run the Sloan Street gallery until 1994. By that time the rent of the London property had become unaffordable and the gallery relocated to Roche Court, the Ponsonby's early 19th-century country house in Wiltshire, nine miles east of Salisbury. At around the same time, the gallery was asked to manage the estate of Barbara Hepworth, a responsibility they still hold.[1] Lady Besborough's husband, Arthur Ponsonby, managed the surrounding farmland until his death in 2002. It still serves as a working farm today, with cattle, sheep and hens, as well as sculptures dotted around the fields.[2]
Art gallery
[edit]Since 1994 the gallery space was expanded in collaboration with architect Stephen Marshall. The first project was the minimalist, corridor-like gallery between the main house and a former freestanding garden pavilion, built in 1998. It was awarded the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Award in 1999, as well as several other prizes.[3] Later, Marshall added the two-story Artists House, an exhibition space made to look like a home. In 2018 Marshall completed the Design House, a renovated and expanded cottage in a walled garden, which is now the center's largest exhibition space, though it has a residential feel similar to the Artists House. Among the many artists that had exhibitions in the Roche Court galleries are Edmund de Waal, Matthew Hilton, Tom Dixon, Katie Walker, Eva Rothschild and Yinka Shonibare.[1][2]
Sculpture park
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When Madeleine Ponsonby moved the gallery to Wiltshire, she envisioned the 70 acres of gardens, woodlands and pastures becoming a huge sculpture park: “When I came here, there were no places, apart from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where artists could show big works outside.”[2] The park features sculptures by well-known British artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Anthony Caro, Kenneth Armitage, Julian Opie, Richard Long, Barry Flanagan, Michael Craig-Martin, Christopher Le Brun, Nigel Hall, Conrad Shawcross, Gavin Turk, Antony Gormley and Phyllida Barlow. Although some of the works remain in place for a long time, every piece is for sale.[1][2]
Roche Court Educational Trust
[edit]The Roche Court Educational Trust uses gallery profits to fund an arts education programme with guided visits and workshops for local schools. The trust also runs ARTiculation, a national competition that encourages young people to engage in public speaking through art. Around 4,000 participate annually. The charity has a permanent staff of five.[1] The sculptor Bill Woodrow is chair, Lady Besborough is trustee.[4] Lady Besborough is trustee.[5]
External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Liam Hess (17 December 2018). "Bovine intervention: the art gallery that escaped to the country". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
- ^ a b c d Dominic Bradbury (17 March 2020). "This English Countryside Estate Has a Remarkable Array of Outdoor Art—and a Working Farm". Galerie Magazine. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
- ^ "Roche Court Sculpture Gallery". Stephen Marshall Architects. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
- ^ "Roche Court. Comments and photos". Historic England. 30 July 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
- ^ "Our Trustees". Roche Court Educational Trust. Retrieved 9 October 2024.