UPDATES
The Sculpture Project: Three Years On As the Art UK Sculpture Project draws towards a conclusion, we recount its progress and the important role volunteer photographers have made to its success. R. KEITH EVANS FRPS A little over two years ago, in June 2018, the first Training Workshop was held for the photographers – many from the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), including members of the Archaeology & Heritage Group – who had volunteered to take part in the Art UK ‘Sculpture Project’ https://artuk.org/about/ sculpture-project. I described the early days of this ambitious venture in the Spring 2018 issue of Heritage Photography, now, with the programme scheduled for completion in February next year, I’m pleased to record its success so far, and what remains to be done.
Encouraging artistic appreciation
Aim of the project, organised by Art UK and The Public Monuments & Sculptures Association, has been to record all of the nation’s sculptures and monuments in the public domain, and place descriptions and images of these on a freely accessible website for all to see and study.
The programme has delivered 94 projects, including 59 Masterpieces in Schools loans; as an example, one of the most recent, in early March, saw two L. S. Lowry paintings and a bronze head of Lowry by Leopold Solomon loaned to the Cardinal Langley High School in Rochdale.
25 project teams were established, each with a Regional Coordinator; the latters’ work has now been completed and they have left Art UK. 25 project staff remain in post to complete digitisation of the images, and to work on the Learning and Engagement Programme for schools which Art UK sees as an important part of the overall project. Its goal is to help introduce young people to the wealth of artistic sculpture available throughout the country for them to see and enjoy.
Most of them, around 50,000, are held in museums, galleries, universities and similar organisations. The volunteer programme has been to photograph and record those outdoor sculptures open to public view. Close to 400 volunteer photographers have taken part so far, with around 150 active at any one time, and it’s pleasing to record that a majority of them have been members of the RPS. Today, three years after the project’s inception, some 22,000 records of public sculptures, twothirds of them with photographic images, have been digitised and can be viewed on-line at https:// artuk.org/discover/artworks/view_as/grid/search/ work_type:sculpture. An estimated 10,000 more sculptures will have been recorded by the time the project ends next February. As one of the lead partners in the project, the RPS and its volunteer members have made an important contribution to its success. Since the earliest ‘trial runs’ in which Essex photographer/lecturer Nikki Hazelton and I, and London professional photographer Colin White, undertook the photography and documentation of a small number of public sculptures in Bath, Essex and Kent, the photography has covered all parts of the United Kingdom. Typical record image taken for the project: Statue of General James Wolfe, Westerham, Kent. 5
