Yorkshire Sculpture Park has announced Joe Hill as its new Director and Chief Executive, with Hill taking up the role on 14 April. His appointment comes at a decisive moment for the organisation as it looks ahead to its 50th anniversary in 2027. Set across 500 acres of historic parkland in West Bretton, West Yorkshire, YSP has built an international reputation for its ambitious approach to sculpture and its sustained engagement with artists who respond to landscape and site.
Hill’s appointment signals the Trustees’ confidence in his capacity to steer the cultural organisation through moments of transition and expansion without losing artistic focus or public purpose. He believes that cultural institutions help shape the character of place, nurture creative practice, and build lasting, thoughtful relationships with both audiences and those who work within them.
Hill is a Yorkshire native and a trained artist. He is currently Director and CEO of Towner Eastbourne, where he has spent the past eight years reshaping the organisation’s artistic direction and public profile. His leadership at Towner combines a clear vision with an emphasis on community engagement, ensuring that both artists and audiences remain central to the gallery’s purpose. This experience closely aligns with YSP’s own ambitions as it plans for the future.
Under Hill’s leadership, Towner Eastbourne was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year in 2020, hosted the Turner Prize in 2023, and secured funding for a significant new arts, environment and heritage centre at Black Robin Farm in the South Downs. The period also saw audience growth and the launch of an extensive redevelopment of Towner’s gallery building in Eastbourne.
Hill was selected following an international recruitment process that attracted applications from across the UK and beyond. In his new role, he will lead the next stage of YSP’s artistic and strategic development, strengthening its position as a centre for commissioning, learning and research, and shaping a long-term vision across its outdoor landscape, indoor galleries and award-winning visitor facilities.
Alongside his organisational leadership, Hill is an active contributor to national cultural debate and policy. He has been chosen to sit on the Turner Prize jury in 2026. Hill holds leadership roles within regional and sector-wide networks, including Culture East Sussex and the South East Creative Economy Network. His career reflects a commitment to contemporary art as a civic force, capable of reshaping how culture, place and landscape intersect. Before joining Towner, he was Director of Focal Point Gallery in Southend, where he led the Radical ESSEX research and placemaking programme, and had previously held curatorial roles at Camden Arts Centre, Firstsite Colchester and the Venice Biennale.
Peter Clegg, Chair of Trustees at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, said: “On behalf of the Trustees, I am delighted to welcome Joe Hill as our new Director and Chief Executive. Following an extensive, rigorous recruitment process, Joe was the unanimous choice from a strong, diverse field.
Joe has transformed Towner Eastbourne into a leading creative hub for the region and has played a key role in initiating a new cultural and educational centre focused on landscape and the arts in the South Downs National Park.
I would also like to thank Kevin Rodd, our Interim Director, and the broader team for steering the organisation through the past six months. With an ambitious programme ahead and some significant challenges to embrace, YSP is exceptionally well placed under Joe’s leadership.”
Joe Hill said: “Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a place I have long admired for its ambition, openness and deep commitment to artists and landscape. I’m delighted to be joining as Director and Chief Executive and look forward to working with the team to ensure YSP continues to develop as a truly international destination for sculpture, while staying firmly rooted in Yorkshire and the communities and environment that give it its character. I’m excited to build on the strength of YSP’s artistic programme and to support its long-term resilience, so it can continue to welcome artists and audiences in new and inspiring ways.”
Pete Massey, Director for Yorkshire and the Humber at Arts Council England, added, “We’re very pleased to see Joe Hill appointed as Director and Chief Executive of Yorkshire Sculpture Park. His leadership experience and artistic insight will be invaluable as YSP approaches its 50th anniversary. We look forward to working with him as the organisation enters this next chapter.”
Joe Hill. Top Photo © Cameron Brown Photo Two: © Artlyst