Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, Art museum and sculpture garden in St Ives, England.
The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum and outdoor garden in the Cornish coastal town of St Ives, displaying stone and bronze sculptures by the artist. The indoor galleries show drawings and carvings, while the garden outside was designed by Hepworth herself and holds many of her large works.
Hepworth moved into the building in 1949 and used it as her studio until she died there in a fire in 1975. Her family opened it to the public shortly after, in 1976.
The museum carries the name of its founder and occupies the rooms where she actually worked. The sculptures remain positioned as she left them, giving visitors a direct sense of how she lived and created.
The garden has some steps and uneven paths, so comfortable shoes are a good idea. The site sits right in the center of St Ives, making it easy to combine with a walk around the town.
Hepworth's tools and working space are kept as she left them, which gives the visit a feeling closer to entering a working artist's space than walking through a typical exhibition. This is one of the few places in the world where you can see both a sculptor's finished works and the actual tools and surfaces she used to make them.
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