As winter closes in, another busy season at Harewood has drawn to a close. We would like to thank you for playing your part in our busy 2015 year.
We kicked off 2015 in style with our busiest ever ‘Spring at Harewood’. We welcomed thousands of people across the school Easter holidays to enjoy the great outdoors bursting into life.
Our 2015 exhibition programme saw Harewood’s own stories take centre stage. ‘The Art of Conservation’ allowed you to see how we care for Harewood’s extensive Chippendale furniture collection. The exhibition included beautiful drawings made by the Chippendale workshop, video’s of the State Bed being restored and some of the furniture itself.
In the Watercolour Rooms, we explored Harewood’s Rum Story. This popular tale told, in detail, about the worlds oldest and most expensive rum was discovered in the cellars in 2011.
We ended our 2015 season with a Summer of Sculpture examining the human form. The stunning Gaudier-Brzeska exhibition in the Terrace Gallery, ran in conjunction with Kettle’s Yard, looked for the first time, at Brzeska’s fascination with dance and form. In the Watercolour Rooms, emerging artist Thomas J Price exhibited his works. These pieces share a preoccupations with the body and the face in particular using the minute detail of facial expressions as the centre focus.
The CLA Game Fair marked the biggest event on Harewood’s calendar celebrating field sports in Britain, including clay pigeon shooting, fishing, falconry, horse & hound and more. We welcomed 150,000 visitors to Harewood for the CLA Game Fair despite some bad weather. Almost all of our 4500 acres were used for everything from camping to off-road driving experiences.
With winter preparations already underway, the closed season will see the whole team involved with our extensive Bird Garden redevelopment project. Watch this space for exciting, new additions to the Harewood visitor experience when we re-open our gates in 2016!
Following on from the success of ‘The Art of Conservation’, and to mark the tercentenary of Lancelot “Capability” Brown’s birth, 2016 will see our new exhibition ‘The Art of Landscape‘ kick off the season. With 1000 acres of Brownian designed parkland, we will be exploring the brilliance behind the immense landscapes he created here at Harewood.
Once again, thank you for your continued support. With lots of exciting things already lined up, 2016 promises to be another great year at Harewood and we look forward to welcoming you back next year!