The Archive

The Wakefield collection includes the archive of the former Wakefield Art Gallery, documenting the development of the collection and the exhibition programme from the gallery’s foundation in 1934 to the present day. It contains letters from artists, including Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore amongst others, press cuttings, photographs, exhibition catalogues and other ephemera. The Hepworth Family Gift is also supported by some archival material, including a selection of books from Hepworth’s library and photographs of all of her sculptures.

A dedicated space has been given to the archive in the new gallery, which will also house the gallery’s collection of books and catalogues that reflect the content of the collection.

The archive is largely uncatalogued at present so, whilst we aim to offer this resource to a wider public in the future, at present we can only accommodate very specific enquiries and access to the material is extremely limited. Please contact the gallery if you wish to enquire further.

The creation of The Hepworth Wakefield’s archive was supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.