Yesterday Castle Howard welcomed a high-level delegation from the city of Suzhou and the Humble Administrator’s Garden to the opening of a photographic exhibition on Castle Howard and the Humble Administrator’s Garden, which was first shown in Suzhou in the autumn of 2018. From this joint exercise Castle Howard looks forward to exploring ways in which the two organisations might work closely together in the future.
Garden-making has been practised for centuries all over the world. 2019 represents an important set of anniversaries, 510 years for Humble Administrator’s Garden, and 320 years for Castle Howard. The Humble Administrator’s Garden was first built in 1509 and added to the UNESCO register World Heritage Sites in December 1997. Castle Howard was begun by Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, in 1699, and this Baroque masterpiece has been home to the Howard family ever since.
Although 12,000 miles apart, these two world-famous gardens share many things in common, and while drawing on different traditions and techniques, both gardens exhibit the craft of making landscape, architecture, flowers, trees, and water work in harmony. These gardens offer an opportunity for visitors from all over the world to come and enjoy them as beautiful creations steeped in history; their tranquility enables visitors to leave feeling refreshed by the experience, having learnt something about the past, and wishing to return again.
The close cooperation between Castle Howard and the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the city of Suzhou will be of practical benefit to each party, as they share their experience and expertise, and this will lead to a common understanding of the history, practice, and management of historic landscapes. It is hoped that this joint initiative will also encourage visitors from China to come to Castle Howard and the ancient city of York; at the same time by opening up a wider appreciation of these two garden traditions visitors from Yorkshire will be inspired to travel to Suzhou and experience the garden delights of that city, especially the Humble Administrator’s Garden. This occasion has been marked by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Nicholas Howard and Director Xue of the Humble Administrator’s Garden.
The exhibition will also feature an art project by schoolchildren in York based on the subject of Chinese and English gardens.
The 'A Celebration of Gardens and Landscapes' photographic exhibition opens to the public in the Stable Courtyard today (Monday 18th February 2019) and admission is free.