Stunning setting, world-class art as Goodwood Art Foundation launches

The promise is an inspiring and enriching experience for everyone, all wrapped up in a landmark new destination for contemporary art in the UK, opening on May 31

Building on the estate’s long history of supporting art and delivering world-class visitor experiences, it will showcase the work of the very best international artists and curators, set against an environment crafted by leading landscape designer Dan Pearson.

The intention is to build a legacy of culture, wellness and learning long into the future, founded on the three pillars at the centre of the Foundation’s vision: art, environment and education.

“Inspiring new approaches to learning and cultural engagement through the fusion of art and the natural world, they will guide everything we do,” says Goodwood Art Foundation director Richard Grindy.

“The idea is that the foundation will enable as wide an audience as possible to engage with the very best contemporary artwork in a location that is stunning and that actually breaks down the barriers and makes it accessible to everyone. We are blessed with this wonderful landscape.

“We have extended the 27 acres previously occupied by (the) Cass (Sculpture Foundation) to 70 acres now. We have got a wonderful swathe of ancient woodland and it really is quite magical up there. It is a wonderful setting and what we want to do is to offer in it art that will appeal to both the very high-end academic artworld which will say this is very high-value and significant art, but at the same time it is absolutely vital that the Goodwood Art Foundation is engaging and exciting for the other 98 per cent of visitors, the families and the schools and the children and all the people that perhaps might not naturally engage with the idea of going into a central London gallery to enjoy art.

“We want everyone to feel that they can come to the Art Foundation. The art world can be seen to have a certain stuffiness or maybe even be a bit closed off. Some people might feel that the art world can be a bit threatening or a bit intimidating, but we want to showcase the best art for absolutely everyone – the kind of art that you would usually see in a gallery space and to put it in this stunning environment and in our gallery spaces. We want people to enjoy it in a way that is really exciting and really open and really relaxed. We want people to come along not knowing perhaps what they're going to experience but to leave with a real sense of inspiration.

“And also we want our visitors to see what Dan Pearson has done with the landscape.”

Dan, an award-winning horticulturist and landscape designer, has devised an extensive programme of landscape development and planting for the new grounds, planting 100,000 bulbs and 1,000 new trees including a striking cherry grove. He has also created an amphitheatre which will serve as a multi-use space and a setting for a host of events.

“We want people to see what he has done as part of their engagement with the artworks here. It will be a win-win situation. But equally if someone is coming along who is more landscape focused, we want them to enjoy what he has done but also at the same time be tempted to engage with the art – again a win-win situation.”

Crucial too to the undertaking will be a huge commitment to education: “Art education funding is pretty much non-existent at the moment. Kids just don't get the chance to engage with art in schools even though there is such benefit in doing so. So we have got a large education programme that is central to everything that we are doing. It is really geared on a schools basis to those schools that are most in need of support. Those schools have been identified and we will also cover their transport costs. There are art opportunities in places but always the big barrier for schools is the cost of getting the kids there and back again. But that's something we're going to cover. We want to engage with the children not just in a fleeting way. We want them to come back time and time again and really build a relationship with us.”

Many people will remember the location as the site for the Cass Sculpture Foundation which occupied part of the grounds for many years.

“There was a lot of very impressive work at Cass, and Cass enabled the commissioning of some great sculpture over the years but there was a feeling that it had run out of steam a little bit towards the end and it was felt that it was the right time to look at winding it down. That was about six years ago when the Cass organisation ceased to exist as a charity and also as a physical presence on the site.

“Cass was very much its own entity. Goodwood was the landlord and Cass was the tenant but when the organisation was wound down, it quickly seemed like an opportunity for Goodwood and for the Duke of Richmond to do something with the site and the buildings that had been built over the years now that it had come back into Goodwood's control.

“The Duke had always seen the positive elements of what Cass were doing there and he knew that people had been very excited about the contemporary artwork there. The Duke has always had a real passion for art, and as part of his legacy and Goodwood’s legacy, his vision was to create a really substantial not-for-profit organisation on the estate. By trade he was a fantastic photographer, and art has always been central to the estate. The winding down of Cass became the catalyst for him to launch a big not-for-profit around contemporary art.

“We did a huge amount of research and we very quickly realised that we needed a world-class curator who was highly regarded and highly trusted by the art world. We had the ambition to show the best artists in the art world in a new location. We therefore needed a world-class curator and we met with Ann (Gallagher, an independent curator working internationally, with extensive experience of curating and commissioning in various roles. From 2006-2019 she was director of collections, British Art at Tate, London). We explained to her our ambitions and she came on board very early on. She is committed to five years of programming for the Foundation.”

And through Ann, the Goodwood Art Foundation secured its first exhibition: Rachel Whiteread from May 31-November 2, in partnership with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Rachel is promising a fascinating dialogue between artworks displayed indoors and outdoors in the first major exhibition to showcase a range of Whiteread’s sculptures alongside her recent photographic work. Together, they offer a chance to reflect on the relationship between nature and form, and on the narratives and memories contained within the objects and structures that surround us.

“Rachel and Ann go back a very long way. Nobody knows Rachel and her practice better than Ann, and they are dear friends as well.

“Each year we will have a show that kicks off in the spring and runs until the beginning of November and then we will have a winter programme that really focuses on the gallery spaces. But during the summer season we will also have other artists.

“We want to emphasise the point that we are not a sculpture park. It is a contemporary art foundation in the widest sense. We will have photography and film and sound installations and painting and small-scale sculpture and large-scale sculpture and with the amphitheatre space that we have created, we will also be running a performance programme with music and performances from theatre companies.”