Fitzwilliam Museum introduces new showcase for contemporary sculpture in the heart of Cambridge

The 2009 Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade: opens Tuesday 28 April This spring, the grounds of The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge will be transformed by a unique display of sculpture by some of the most accomplished artists working today.
Selected by sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld and Fitzwilliam Museum Director Timothy Potts, the 2009 Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade will inaugurate an annual exhibition of contemporary sculpture on the Museum lawns, creating a dynamic new focus for contemporary art in the heart of Cambridge. "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," said Fitzwilliam Director 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." This free outdoor installation opens to the public on Tuesday 28 April, and features a selection of recent sculpture by members of the prestigious Royal British Society of Sculptors (RBS). 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. Helaine Blumenfeld, who is Vice-President of the RBS, said "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." This will be the largest and most significant sculpture installation presented in the grounds of the Fitzwilliam, following the three-year display of Henry Moore’s Large Reclining Figure on the main lawn (2004 - 2007). The juxtaposition of contemporary sculpture with the Museum’s neoclassical façade will ensure the Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade becomes one of Cambridge’s must-see attractions. The 2009 Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade is sponsored by the Unex Group.

27 March 2009