This summer marks the end of an era with the ‘Last Blast’ of The Fresh Air Sculpture Show, which founder Lucy Abel Smith promises to be the most ambitious edition of this popular event yet
Filling the garden with sculpture and throwing open its gates to visitors for several weeks every other summer has been a way of life for Lucy Abel Smith for more than 30 years.
What started as a relatively small affair has grown into a much-anticipated biennial fixture attracting up to 10,000 people from all over the UK, many excited by the prospect of discovering contemporary works dotted within five acres of beautifully maintained grounds surrounding a centuries-old, honey-coloured former rectory.
The Fresh Air event was founded by Lucy and her late husband, David, and successive events have brought thought-provoking and stimulating cutting-edge sculptures to the attention of seasoned art-lovers and schoolchildren alike.
From supersized agapanthus and muscular figures rising from the ground to bold geometric shapes and fantastical animals, there’s always been plenty to challenge, thrill and invite contemplation for the thousands of visitors drawn to their family home in this quiet corner within the quintessentially Cotswold village of Quenington.
‘Not everybody is going to like everything, but nobody is judging,’ says Lucy. ‘People can simply wander around the gardens if they like.
‘The idea is that visitors experience cutting-edge sculpture in situ as it was intended: animated by water, shadow and birdsong.
‘Looking at it in a garden setting is more relaxing and can make you feel more deeply about the nature around it.
‘All our curators have been very skilled at positioning pieces so that you feel alone with each one.’
The Old Rectory, home to the Abel Smiths for almost a century, is surrounded by vast lawns either side of the Coln river, hidden walkways, richly planted borders and productive vegetable beds.
The garden was established along organic lines by Esmé Bradburne, who also undertook much of the planting at the Kensington Roof Gardens in London and was a friend of Soil Association founder Lady Eve Balfour. The present-day gardener, Robert Wyatt, was initially Esmé’s assistant.
Over the years, Lucy and David added to their personal collection of sculpture and commissioned features like the swing bridge, built by Richard La Trobe-Bateman in 2003, which epitomises the fun, creativity and craft at the heart of the show.
A circular library inspired by 12th-century dovecotes but with an unexpected modern twist in the form of its perspex peak was created by Michael Gold in 2008, while Donald Andrew Rowe added an eye-catching pergola in 2019.
The story of how a couple from the Cotswolds came to host a groundbreaking biennial sculpture exhibition in their garden of their family home began in the early 1990s.
David was an engineer and who went on to become the chairman and owner of the hydraulic lifting equipment company Majorlift at Wickwar, while Lucy had studied art, with a specialism in central Europe and the Balkans, and worked for a time commissioning pieces for hospitals, including the Gloucestershire Royal.
They came to the attention of Brewery Arts in Cirencester after falling in love with a large pot and buying it for their garden; shortly afterwards they were approached by the charity’s outreach officer, Wendy Shales, and the result was a sculpture event in tandem with a village festival in 1992 that attracted around 300 people.
‘David’s great skill was managing the budget and looking after things like the maps: we did it very much ourselves to start with – with help from a local person who had a van, who helped to transport the sculptures for the first event. Then it got too much to do on our own.
‘My husband adored people and I used to come home to find them wandering around the house, a glass of wine in hand, after he had invited them in.’
By 1997 the Abel Smiths had set up a charitable trust – The Quenington Sculpture Trust – so that they could continue to hold Fresh Air every two years.
‘Our aim was to create a platform for artists; our secondary aim was education, and in 1997 we started bringing in schools,’ Lucy explains.
‘We really wanted to open people’s eyes as to what’s on offer.
‘Arts in this country are superb but not treated well in the education system.
‘I think the arts are extraordinarily enriching, and its importance in terms of the mental health of people of all ages cannot be underestimated.
‘Fresh Air started in a small way and has taken an organic approach, which has meant being able to add and take away things as we’ve gone on. This has made for a more flexible and richer mix.’
Alongside the sculpture, Fresh Air has hosted outdoor performances of Shakespeare, fashion shows, with the nave of St Swithin’s Church acting as a runway, and Glass Glamour exhibitions, while local pub The Keepers even ran spoof Artse event, to which local people contributed their own creations.
‘It was hilarious – they asked me to judge it,’ recalls Lucy with a chuckle.
‘Fresh Air has created a sort of energy and taken on a life of its own,’ she adds.
‘It’s been extraordinary. One of the great things about it has been having local support, with a lot of volunteers pitching in to help with things like meeting and greeting and running the car parks.
‘We couldn’t have done it without our curators and the volunteers.’
Planning the final Fresh Air, fittingly called The Last Blast, has been a bittersweet experience for Lucy – nevertheless it will be an out and out celebration of creativity with a carnival twist which, like many of its predecessors, has taken some 18 months to put together. Curator Stephanie Cushing is honouring the history and adventurous spirit of Fresh Air by inviting sculptors representing each of the previous 17 editions to create a living anthology of the event.
These sculptors include the likes of Sally de Courcy, Gary Breeze, Daniel Chadwick, Ruth Moilliet, Carol Peace and Sally Fawkes and Richard Jackson.
Stephanie, a marble sculptor who worked from the Cotswolds for more than a decade, brings a rare vantage to her role as curator of Fresh Air Sculpture, instinctively understanding how form sits in space and how materials respond to light and landscape.
‘Stephanie anchors the exhibition with both aesthetic intelligence and practical sculptural insight,’ says Lucy.
‘She not only selects works with impact but knows how to place them so they sing within the garden of The Old Rectory.’
Fresh Air has notched up a series of firsts over the past 30 years, including outdoor displays involving glass. It has encouraged artists from both the UK and abroad and earned praise for its ECCO! Initiative, which stands for Encouraging Children to Collect (art) Objects, inviting young visitors aged 18 and under to buy original small works and artist sketches at accessible prices – planting the seed of a lifelong love of art and collecting.
This scheme is a poignant connection to Lucy’s own family history, with her father and grandfather encouraging her to invest in a collection of her own from an early age.
‘ECCO! has been a way of breaking down the fear and shyness of buying an art object,’ she says. ‘My grandfather collected paintings, he had a good eye, and my father collected snuff boxes, which led me to collect shoe-shaped ones. I was brought up not to be frightened by art.’
Meanwhile, Fresh Air’s visionary education programme, guided by education curator Emily Bird, will partner with the Quenington Sculpture Trust charity to welcome more than 800 students from 30 schools, with inclusive workshops for pupils of all ages and abilities.
Lucy says this summer’s Fresh Air will be the last because, after more than 30 years, she feels it’s time to pass on the baton to somebody else. Alongside the event in the Cotswolds, she’s been instrumental in setting up an arts festival in Transylvania that combines books, poetry, music and food.
Yet while it will be the last Fresh Air in its physical form, its legacy will live on in the form of scholarships to support various arts and crafts in the Cotswolds and beyond.
‘We will start with textiles and go on to cover furniture, glass, metal and ceramics. I hope these scholarships will continue the idea of quality and originality and be a showcase for our artists. The plan is for the successful student to write a report and make a finished piece, which it would be jolly nice to show it in one of the UK’s leading exhibition spaces.’
In addition, this year’s event is collaborating with Cotswolds Arts Through Schools (CATS), the charity which brings professional artists, musicians, dramatists and dancers into state schools across the Cotswolds. Through this partnership, the trust aims to deepen its support for teachers and students in creative arts disciplines.
Other highlights include British crafts, including jewellery, ceramics, wirework, glass and metalwork for both the garden and home, which will be displayed in The Pool House Gallery. These have been curated by Tracey Burgoyne, who has been associated with Fresh Air since the 1990s and previously directed the craft shop at New Brewery Arts before going on to manage the Gloucestershire Guild Shop in Cheltenham.
‘The applied arts has always been a strength and provided things other than sculpture – we’ve tried to offer a wide range to suit all budgets; I see it as a sweetie box.’
Lucy will be leading guided sculpture and garden tours for groups of up to 20, for those looking for deeper insights. Food will be provided by Josser, a roaming restaurant founded by chef Oliver Halas, well known for his work at Giffords’ Circus Sauce, and partner Amber White.
Alongside Fresh Air will be a fringe event at St Swithin’s Church showcasing pieces made from recycled wood and metal and hosted by the Ernest Cook Trust.
Looking back, Lucy is both proud and surprised by what’s been achieved over the past three decades and looks forward to the legacy that will continue long after the last visitors leave in July.
‘We just got on with it and it’s surprised us by the way it’s been accepted and admired,’ she says. ‘People say we have put Quenington on the map.’.
Fresh Air takes place at The Old Rectory in Quenington, from Sunday, June 14, to Sunday, July 5, and is open 10am-5pm daily. For more information visit: freshairsculpture.com and realityandbeyond.co.uk
