Contemporary sculpture installation opens TODAY

The 2009 Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade on the Museum’s lawns is now open to the public. This free open-air installation showcases a selection of sculpture by some of the most accomplished artists working today, set against the backdrop of the Museum’s historic façade.

Selected by the Cambridge-based sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld and Fitzwilliam Museum Director Timothy Potts, the 2009 Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade inaugurates an annual exhibition of contemporary sculpture on the Museum lawns, creating a new focus for contemporary art in the heart of Cambridge.

The 2009 display features the work of members of the prestigious Royal British Society of Sculptors. The eight artists exhibiting in the 2009 installation are David Begbie, Wu Wei-shan, Johannes von Stumm, Richard Fenton, Charles Hadcock, Diane Maclean, Terry New and Andrew Stonyer.

"The Sculpture Promenade will be a great enhancement to the public face of the Fitzwilliam, animating its historic façade and bringing the energy and activity that we offer inside the Museum out onto the street," says Timothy Potts. "These larger works, designed for an expansive setting, will signal to passers-by that we are a museum as much concerned with the art of today as of the past."

Helaine Blumenfeld, who is Vice-President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, says "I am particularly pleased that the Society will be collaborating with the museum on a project which so closely reflects its ethos: the promotion of the values of beauty, quality and craft in sculptural practice, encouragement of emerging sculptors and a commitment to increasing public understanding of the medium."

The 2009 Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade is sponsored by the Unex Group.

For more details on the sculptures and artists, as well as a time-lapse video of the Sculpture Promenade installation, see the online exhibition.

28 April 2009