Art UK Sculpture was a landmark project which saw Art UK digitise over 50,000 of the UK’s significant collection of sculptures and public monuments, and has made them available to view and search online for the first time.
This unique online resource showcases the rich history of sculpture in the UK and how sculpture itself represents our history. Members of the public, historians and researchers from across the world can access this information for free, for pleasure and study. Users can search via location, artist or subject at www.artuk.org. Stories on the Art UK website allow people to learn about the artworks and sculptors, and why and how the sculptures were made.
The catalogued artworks include over 14,500 public sculptures recorded by a network of volunteers. Famous figures depicted in statues range from Queen Victoria and Princess Pocahontas to Winston Churchill and The Beatles. Additionally, Art UK recorded over 36,000 sculptures of the last thousand years held inside UK public collections, by renowned artists including Antony Gormley, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.
The project has made an enormous contribution to the study of sculpture and has raised public awareness of this great art form. Sculpture tells us about our country’s history and who we have chosen to commemorate. Each part of the UK reflects its own identity, industries and local heroes in the monuments it builds. This ground-breaking database can be used for research for years to come and will grow as new public sculptures are unveiled across the UK.