On Wednesday 27th Jan we decided it would be beneficial to take a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to gather as much information as we could; this proved informative and exciting to a degree although we were doomed from the start. As Wednesdays we have a lecture on inro to digital design we decided to head off for the train after the mid morning lecture, nearly missing the train! Once we were on our way to Wakefield Westgate; not kirkgate where we should of got off, we made it to the bus station to get a bus through to the park only to have to wait for nearly an hour! Valuable learning time, so I decided to try and entertain the bus station with my gaydar and poor effort at Diablo, what a fail! The bus to the park took us sightseeing through little villages and then dropped us off in the middle of nowhere on which the trek to the entrance of the park in the cold was something I never want to experience again.
Whilst strolling to the visitor’s centre we were greeted by numerous statues resembling human form and one that looked like a spine, as well as lots of animals poop! Heading straight for the toilets we soon warmed up and got our first taste of what to expect thought the park; Clean nicely presented and well maintained. Then to the shop! Taking notes of all products available to buy personally there was a lot of beautiful pieces there I would happily of snapped up if I had the money.
Time to move on and look at Rob Ryan’s exhibition beautiful paper cut outs mounted the walls and whole rooms of screen-printed products filled the upstairs space, gorgeous work!
Now we were going to get cold again, I defiantly should of worn warmer clothes! A short walk later we found ourselves talking to the most gay straight man ever in the Peter Randall Page exhibition centre looking at sculptures what to me almost resembled bodily waste. Getting followed by a man who most probably thought we were up to no good we stopped him in a corner and interrogated him into giving us all the information we desired! This is possibly the best thing we did all day (work wise anyway).
Once again we went outside to get cold. With the group dividing into people too cold to walk or not, me and Amanda ventured off into the wild to investigate taking numerous pictures and playing in trees.
A bridge saying HAHAHAHA along its side gave us our path to further statues in a field; Amanda walking cautiously
Once back in the safety of the toilets we cleaned ourselves up and found Maryam and Hayley, they laughed at our fall but in hindsight we did it in the name of work. By this time we were sure as hell going to miss the bus back but the centre was shutting so we had to leave into the cold, after debating whether to walk into the nearby village we settled for standing on a pitch black roadside for an hour until the bus came back. Sharing chocolate, listening to tunes and dancing, we amused ourselves for the 50 minutes getting lorries to honk us, we managed 5 in about 20 minutes not too bad at all.
Seeing the bus arrive was like Christmas all over again we jumped on and sat down soon finding the heat from floor heaters. We were finally able to warm up again and couldn’t get home quick enough. In all though the day was eventful to say the least, we found out lots of information and had a ‘unique’ day out.
- Jacqui -
- Photos by Amanda -
Leaflets collected at the park
Notes taken while at YSP
- Inconvient location (espically by public transport, bus/train stops en route dont even say, eg to YSP)
- Caters for the disabled. (Electric and Hand wheelchairs avaliable at reception)
- Child Friendly (though really I think a childrens sculpture playground would be excellent in the grounds).
- Is a registered charity. Most funds come from the gift shop, the cafe and the car park. Donations from the public.
- The Art Council England, YSP Funding team.
- Cost 3million a year to run. (Up keep of park, Staff etc)
- The whole park is exactly 500 acres of land.
- Sculptured art is neatly placed around the land, so you come across the pieces on your walk.
- The YSP is basically an outdoor storage place for the artists pieces. The Inside galleries store smaller exhibitions that change every 6-9 months.
- Busiest periods for the park are Saturdays/Sundays (Bank Holidays), School groups between 10am-2pm during the week.
- Vistors:-
International People (through promotion of the
website)
University Students
Familys - Another target audience was single parents although i kinda think that s
Schools
- Day events - Usually in summer months, Child/Adults, Artist Workshops. and also in 2009 catered for its first wedding.
- It opened in 1977 and only closes on 2 days, christmas eve and christmas day in the year.
- Its free to visit, which is great at this time of the economical downturn (credit crunch).
- Many of the locals who have seen the sculpture park, wont go back as they think they have seen it all before, could be a possible target audience, to bring back the locals. Though many of them think that the sculpture park should be more commercial but its NOT a fun park. (e.g Alton Towers)
- Artist Rob Ryan's work was currenty on show in the main foyer and top gallery ' You can still do alot with a small brain' and Peter Randall's Kilkenny limestone pieces where in the bottom gallery.
- In the gift shop there was the YSP annual contemporary craft and design exhibition called Made, this one being its third was to celebrate items that 'stimulate a sense of nostalgia and evoke the memories of treasured objects' in total there where 30 jewellery artists with there work on display.
- Maryam -
More information about the Yorkshire Sculpture Park can be found at: www.ysp.co.uk
