UK Travel | Nature is Art: Yorkshire Sculpture Park

In addition to London, I also visited Cambridge and Leeds in the UK. Even though I only had one day in Yorkshire, I made a special trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This sculpture park is a place I've always cherished, having frequented it during my studies. It's an art gallery in nature, where the sky and grass are the exhibition halls, the lake is the frame, and the sunlight and wind are the "guides" whispering in your ears. Located on the outskirts of Wakefield, near Leeds, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park covers approximately 500 acres and houses a collection of sculptures by artists from Britain and around the world, including Yorkshire-born Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, as well as Damien Hirst. This sculpture park, now comparable to London's Tate Modern in the field of sculpture art, originated from a DIY project. In 1970, the current director, Peter Murray, attended an art course at Bretton Hall College, which was established after World War I. It was then that he conceived the idea of placing sculptures in a natural landscape. With £1,000 in funding, he and his friends founded the park. Initially, the sculpture park faced pressure from various quarters, accused of disrupting the natural pastoral environment. Today, the sculpture park enjoys international acclaim, hosting world-class exhibitions and repeatedly winning the UK Museum of the Year award.