Keisha Thompson was the recipient of the 2023/2024 YSP/Laureate Fund Residency. Follow her series of self-guided poetry walks to discover a new side to the Park, curated to encourage your mind and your body to wander.

Head outdoors this winter and discover the beauty of trees and sculptures at YSP, on a Wild Yuletide sculpture walk.

Uncover eerie sculptures and spin a tale filled with magic and myth. Let your imaginations run wild at each spine-tingling stopping point.

As you explore sculpture and nature, gather as many colours as you can. Write down or draw a colour at each stop and at the end, decide on your favourite colour of the day.

Andy Goldsworthy is one of the UK’s most well-known contemporary artists. He grew up in Yorkshire and is known for his site-specific installations involving natural materials. He has created four permanent works in the landscape at YSP. Follow our three-mile circular trail and see if you can find them all.

YSP is an incredible home for wildlife, including lots of rabbits – both real and sculptural! Follow our trail to see how many you can spot.

Spot the signs that nature is waking from its winter slumber and warmer and longer days aren’t far away. Look out for unfurling buds, nesting herons and clusters of beautiful snowdrops.

YSP has a strong connection to its landscape, history and native habitats, which help to make it such a special place. Some of these sculptures may not be instantly recognisable, blending in to the landscape and changing with it over time. Many, like David Nash's Seventy-one Steps, are site specific and appear simply as practical solutions.

Wrap up warm and enjoy a blast of fresh air on a winter wander around the grounds of YSP. Spot sculptures that explore themes of light and fire along the way, following our suggested 3km route via the Chapel to experience Light Organ, before ending at James Turrell's Deer Shelter Skyspace to take in the sunset.

The days are longer and there's a sense of reawakening in the air. Spring is here – the turning point of the year, a time filled with hope. Discover artworks in our landscape that evoke growth and rebirth, and encounter pieces that really come into their own with longer hours of daylight. Beyond the art, enjoy the sights and sounds of the natural world coming to life at YSP this season too. Lambs finding their feet. A blanket of bluebells in the woods. The sweet song of the blackbird.

Light is essential to visual art. Even a lack of light can shape an artwork’s colour, texture and form. Shadows and light can set a mood, tell a story. They conceal, reflect, reveal. For some artists, they’re tools and materials in their own right. Many of our sculptures at YSP harness daylight in fascinating, at times glistening, ways. Some play with the way light falls. Others might make us think about the symbolism of light and darkness.

2023 is the Year of the Rabbit - symbolising symbolising mercy, elegance, and beauty in Chinese mythology.

YSP is home to a number or rabbits - both real and sculptural. Look out for our resident rabbit sculptures in the Formal Garden and Lower Park on your next visit.

YSP has a strong connection to trees, from our partnership with the Oak Project to artworks created from and inspired by trees. Not always immediately obvious that they’re sculptures, many of these works are designed to change over time, responding to or becoming part of the landscape.

Words, letters and language have been both subjects and materials for many contemporary artists. For some artworks, they add another layer of texture or shape. For others, they stir emotion, tell a story, or make a political statement.

Animals and beasts – both real and imaginary – have always fascinated artists. It could be the colours and patterns of wildlife that attract them, or the myths and stories of a certain animal. Some artists explore the mystery, power or vulnerability of nature. Others invent their own fantastical beings.