Hepworth Wakefield gallery to set up sculpture award

The Hepworth Wakefield cost £35m to build and was designed by architect David Chipperfield

A £30,000 award for UK-based sculptors is to be created by the The Hepworth Wakefield gallery as part of its fifth anniversary celebrations.

The prize, to be awarded every other year, will be open to artists who have made "a significant contribution to contemporary sculpture".

The four shortlisted artists for the first award will go on show at the West Yorkshire gallery next October.

The £35m gallery, named after sculptor Barbara Hepworth, opened in May 2011.

It has since had around 1.4 million visitors and generated £20m for the local economy, according to the gallery.

Rhubarb Triangle

The sculpture award will be open to artists of any age and at any stage in their career who make sculpture "in its broadest definition".

The prize will be funded by benefactors including TV executive and Hepworth Wakefield chairman David Liddiment; art collector David Roberts; Linda Harley, who founded shoe chain LK Bennett; and local company Litestructures.

The gallery's fifth anniversary programme will also include the first UK survey of works by artist Stanley Spencer for 15 years and a retrospective of photographer Martin Parr, including new photographs of Yorkshire's "Rhubarb Triangle".

Works by artists including Henry Moore, Antony Gormley and David Hockney have been donated to the gallery by collector and former BBC journalist Tim Sayer, and will also go on display.