What kind of a year has 2012 been for you and your organisation?
The Hepworth Wakefield has had an exceptional year, growing our audience on the foundation of the 512,000 visitors we had in our first 12 months of opening from May 2011. It’s been exciting learning how to use the superb spaces we have to best effect; developing the collection with philanthropic gifts and support from trusts, foundations and the Art Fund, and achieving inspiring local support through our Learning Programme. It’s been important that our work always demonstrates and achieves a clear return on investment and that we can show how crucial culture is to civic pride, aspiration, education and quality of life. 2012 was a wonderful year of delivering this and opening up future potential and plans.
What has changed for the better and what, if anything, has changed for the worse?
For the better: The growth of the positive and inspiring relationships with our audiences, artists, supporters and stakeholders continues to delight us all at the gallery.
For the worse: the ticketing machines in our car park…
What do you wish hadn’t happened this year?
Plans, as they currently stand, for the Ebacc omitting artistic and cultural activity as a crucial part of any child’s education. The so-called ‘creative-industries’ are a huge success story for the UK. They are a major part of what we are known for in this country; this needs to be supported at every opportunity, not nipped in the bud.
What do you wish had happened this year, but didn’t?
That every bid for investment in our life-changing work was successful!
What would you characterise as your/your organisation’s major achievement this year and why?
The committed staff here ensuring that our national and international ambitions are grounded in solid local support and that we are well used by the community as a meaningful and highly valued resource.
Is there anything you’d like to have done but haven’t?
It’s only possible to do so much and there is always so much more to do. We’ve been energetic and ambitious and have great plans for the future. The further development of the gallery’s digital manifestations will be a major project next year that offers some intriguing possibilities, and we are looking to use and develop the amazing site in which the gallery is situated for artists’ projects and our learning programme.
What would make 2013 a better year than 2012?
We have to keep learning consistently from what we do, reflecting on why we do it, and how. We have to keep raising the bar strategically on our ambitions and outcomes for the benefit of artists, audiences and the region. We have to be inspirational, responsive and highly pragmatic. We will develop even more inventive collaborations and ensure that stakeholders are always fully informed about what we deliver so that they can feel and know they’ve made a valuable investment in us.
The Hepworth Wakefield, Gallery Walk, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, www.hepworthwakefield.org
