A team from Art UK visited the Town Hall and Rye Art Gallery on Wednesday, November 8 to photograph pieces of sculpture, as part of a national recording project to catalogue the UK’s national sculpture collection. This ambitious initiative will see around 170,000 sculptures from inside public collections and outdoors in the nation’s streets and squares being shown on the artuk.org website by 2020. No other country has attempted such a comprehensive digitisation of its national sculpture collection.
The UK’s national sculpture collection is drawn from all over the world – a truly global collection and arguably the greatest in existence. However, a significant proportion is not on display and little of it is photographed. Many public monuments are not fully recorded and are at risk.
The Art Uk team of three attending the photo shoot in the gallery was led by Dr Barbara Pezzini Coordinator (South East) Art UK Sculpture, her colleagues Selina Levinson Learning and Engagement Officer at Art UK and specialist art photographer, Jarom James.
They were met by Julian Day, trustee of the collection who said: “Rye Art Gallery’s eclectic mix of sculpture is of significant National, Regional and Local importance and it’s fantastic that all of this work can all be seen and accessed in future online. We also have plans in place to show more of our sculptures next year as part of Rye Art Gallery’s public programme of exhibitions.”
Image Credits: Julian Day , Library .