Yorkshire Artspace: maker showcase

The Editor -

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Visitor Centre

15 April – 6 October 2024

17 exceptional Yorkshire artists and makers showcase work for sale at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

17 skilled craftspeople and makers, based at leading Sheffield artist studio provider Yorkshire Artspace (YAS), are set to display and sell their work at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) this spring/summer. Each maker employs different techniques and is renowned for their individual specialisms, working with galleries and outlets across the UK and internationally. All works will be for sale, with proceeds going directly to artists and supporting YSP’s charitable work.

The two arts organisations have joined forces for the first time to showcase some of the incredible creative talent based in Yorkshire. The display in the YSP Centre brings together brilliant and diverse work by exceptional makers, artists and craftspeople, platforming Yorkshire as a region of outstanding creative production and making.

Spanning contemporary ceramics, silversmithing, jewellery and leather work, each maker has developed and honed their skills over many years. The talented artists include ceramicists Janet Barnes and Hanne Westegaard, jewellers Chris Boland and Jennie Gill, and silversmiths Francisca Onumah and Helena Russell.

Onumah works with sheet metal, layering repeated hammered marks and textile patterns with different mark making techniques. Uniform patterns are blended with imprints that are either intentionally formed or involuntarily picked up as the making process evolves, with stunning results.

In contrast, Hanne Westegaard works with ceramics and is influenced by the Scandinavian Modernism that was prevalent during her education in ceramics, which taught that objects are purely functional. Over the years she has moved away from the strictures of modernism and now makes larger scale vessels and objects that are items to be celebrated in their own right. She derives much of her inspiration from nature.

YAS is one of the largest creative communities in the UK, providing studio space for around 170 practising artists and makers across two sites in Sheffield city centre. With a shared passion for the production and promotion of contemporary craft, it highlights the wealth of skill and craftsmanship in the region.

Amanda Peach, YSP’s Retail Programme and Development Manager, said: “YSP is well known for supporting up and coming talents from Yorkshire, and this exciting collaboration with YAS allows us to support 17 artists all at once. We think our visitors will appreciate the huge variety of skills on display and ultimately help support some of Yorkshire’s most talented makers and artists.”

Georgina Kettlewell, Director of Yorkshire Artspace, added: “Sheffield is an important UK centre for creative production – it’s a city of skilled contemporary makers, home to a vibrant mix of creative people and artistic practices. We’re proud of the talent based in our studios and we’re delighted to work with YSP, offering new opportunities to our studio members to showcase their craft.”

One of the showcase exhibitors Nichola Gensler, of Burnt Crust Pottery, said: “I love a visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It’s an honour to be displayed next to the talented makers in the shop, and also to be amongst the artwork in the galleries and the Country Park.

I moved up to Sheffield almost three years ago and feel so lucky to have found Yorkshire Artspace. My pottery has come a long way since gaining a studio and access to the recently built gas kilns at Persistence Works. I try to bring the outdoors into my pieces by using clay that I dig up myself, and I hope that they sit well in this fantastic scenery.”

Established in the same year as YSP (1977) by art graduates, Yorkshire Artspace was one of the first studio groups developed outside of London, where the studio movement began in the late 1960s. Since then it’s grown to become one of the largest and most established studio providers in the UK.

The full list of makers is:

  • Becca Brown
  • Burnt Crust Pottery
  • Chris Boland
  • Contour Map Jewellery
  • Daisy Lee Jewells
  • Emily Thatcher
  • Francisca Onumah
  • Hanne Westergaard
  • Helena Russell
  • Hyde Wares
  • Janet Barnes
  • Jennie Gill
  • Josephine Gomersall
  • Mike Scown
  • Penny Withers