Field for the British Isles by Sir Antony Gormley, creator of the Angel of the North, will be on display at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA) at National Glass Centre from July until September this year.
The work comprises 40,000 small clay figures and was last in the region 25 years ago when it was on display at the former Greenesfield British Rail Works in Gateshead. More than 25,000 people visited the exhibition.
The artwork will be on loan from the Arts Council Collection, as part of the National Partners Programme, which supports regional galleries and museums to present and curate exhibitions drawn from the Collection.
The project has been made possible thanks to an £18,000 grant from the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund, and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Created by the Garfield Weston Foundation and Art Fund, the Weston Loan Programme is the first ever UK-wide funding scheme to enable regional museums to borrow works of art and artefacts from national collections.
Field for the British Isles was chosen by Sunderland Culture’s Art Champions, a group of nine local people with no formal arts training but a passion and interest to discover more about modern and contemporary art.
Last winter, the Art Champions were introduced to the Arts Council Collection; visiting the Collection Stores where they handled figures from Field for the British Isles and learnt about the use of community collaborators in its creation. On completing the artwork in 1993, Gormley specified it had to be installed with help from volunteers co-ordinated by the host venue – to instill a sense of ownership in the project. Encountering the work provoked a strong response in Sunderland’s Art Champions, and led to the request to bring the installation to the city.
It will be the first time Gormley has exhibited in Sunderland.