Artwork by Turner Prize winner Sir Tony Cragg CBE launches new public Sculpture Park at UoG

University of Gloucestershire has officially opened its new public Sculpture Park by unveiling artwork loaned by world-renowned sculptor and Turner Prize winner Sir Tony Cragg CBE.

The inaugural sculpture, named Tommy, has been installed at the University’s Park Campus in Cheltenham to provide an immersive, accessible art experience for students, staff and the local community.

The installation marks a significant addition to the University’s Creative Campus, one of the key teaching and learning hubs at Park, with the Sculpture Park designed to bring internationally recognised art to the local community.

Sir Tony’s life as an artist started in Cheltenham in 1969, where he studied at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, one of the forerunners of University of Gloucestershire.

Sir Tony (pictured below) recalled: “I had never been to art school or even met an artist before I went to study in Cheltenham. It was a huge adventure. With hindsight, the course was very structured, even academic, but in a good way.”

Now one of the world’s leading contemporary sculptors, Sir Tony’s work has been exhibited at more than 500 solo exhibitions over the past 50 years at major galleries and public spaces internationally.

He has maintained a busy teaching career, working as a Professor at the Düsseldorf Academy (1979-2001) and Professor for Sculpture at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin (2001-2006) before returning to the Düsseldorf Academy in 2006 as Director.

During this period, he was President of the Malkasten Academy for artists in the same city.

Today, Sir Tony runs a busy studio, a foundation and Waldfrieden, a large sculpture park with a full outdoor and indoor exhibition programme, which he established in 2008.

Sir Tony was awarded the title of Knight Bachelor in Queen Elizabeth II’s 2016 Birthday Honours for services to visual arts and UK-German relations.

Sir Tony’s sculpture Tommy, which has been loaned to the University until May 2031, is the first work of a series of artwork that will form the wider Sculpture Park over the coming months.

Designed as a landscaped space for reflection and exploration, the Sculpture Park will showcase important contemporary sculpture while acknowledging the natural environment of Park Campus.

The Sculpture Park builds on the University’s growing research into Gloucestershire’s sculptural heritage and aims to strengthen Cheltenham’s reputation as a destination for arts and culture. It forms part of the University’s wider Creative Campus at Park, a collaborative hub for arts education, research and public engagement. The campus is home to a connected community of artists and creators studying courses from fine art and graphic design to film and TV production, journalism, music, photography and computer games development.

The campus will be home to one of the biggest events in the academic calendar next month, the 2026 Degree Show (5 June) which showcases creative work from graduating students across the School of Arts, Culture and the Environment.

Professor Angus Pryor, Executive Dean for Research and Head of the School of Arts, Culture and Environment, said: “It is a huge honour for us to be displaying ‘Tommy’, which is such a major work by an important British artist at Park.

“We are hugely grateful to Sir Tony Cragg CBE for his gesture of support for our work here at University of Gloucestershire. Cheltenham was where his own personal journey into art and artmaking began, just over 50 years ago.

“We cannot think of a more fitting sculpture for the new park at our Creative Campus. It will be a be a daily reminder both of his own special achievement and how studying the creative arts here can creatively inspire us all to greater things.”

Picture of Sir Tony Cragg: credit Ninadanilova, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons