Yorkshire Sculpture Park renames Underground Gallery in honour of founder
Yorkshire Sculpture Park has renamed its main Underground Gallery The Peter Murray Gallery, in honour of the Park’s founder, Sir Peter Murray CBE.
The new name was officially unveiled at a special event, attended by artists, supporters, staff and friends of the Park this.
The renaming celebrates Sir Peter’s transformative leadership since he founded YSP in 1977 with a £1,000 grant, establishing what would become Europe’s largest sculpture park and a globally respected centre for modern and contemporary sculpture.
Joe Hill, Director and Chief Executive of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, said: “Renaming the Underground Gallery The Peter Murray Gallery is a fitting tribute to a visionary who changed the cultural landscape of Yorkshire and the UK.
“Sir Peter’s belief in making art accessible in extraordinary places has shaped everything we do at YSP. This gallery has hosted some of the most ambitious exhibitions in our programme, and carrying his name forward ensures that his legacy continues to inspire artists and audiences for generations to come.”
Opened in the early 2000s, the gallery established itself as a prestigious venue for large-scale, site-responsive exhibitions by leading international artists. Recent notable exhibitions in the gallery include the current Hold to This Earth, the first group exhibition presented in the gallery in 20 years, bringing together more than 60 works by contemporary Indigenous North American artists from Tia Collection; William Kentridge: The Pull of Gravity, comprising more than 40 works made between 2007 and 2024; and Bharti Kher: Alchemies, a powerful exhibition of sculpture and two-dimensional work by one of the world’s leading contemporary artists.