1997 - present

In the late 90s, David Handley dreamed of Sydney hosting a free, outdoor public-art exhibition. Friends suggested David explore the beautiful Bondi –Tamarama coastal walk to consider its potential as the venue. He approached Waverley Council to initiate the project, for which his early vision was to include paintings; however, David quickly distilled the idea to ‘sculpture only’, recognising that paintings wouldn’t be as able to withstand the winds and possible rain of the clifftop environment.

The first show was quite an impressive one-day event – the 63 artworks were viewed by 20,000 visitors – despite its only 10-week preparation period and minuscule budget. The exhibition now runs for three weeks in Spring and is a showcase for more than 100 local and international artists.

In 2005, the not-for-profit arts organisation looked west and initiated Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe. This beachside suburb of Perth, Western Australia has been home to this annual exhibition every year since.

Four international exhibitions of Sculpture by the Sea were held in Aarhus, Denmark, under the Patronage of Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark - in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015.

Other projects produced by the Sculpture by the Sea team include five exhibitions of ‘A Sea Change’ (1998), staged in Darwin, Noosa, Bondi, Albany and the Tasman Peninsular for the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival (the Tasmanian exhibition was staged again in 2001), Sculpture Rocks (The Rocks, Sydney, 2021) and Sculpture Encounters – Granite Island which saw sculptures installed on a small island in Victor Harbor, South Australia for a three-year exhibition (2018-2020).

In May 2022, taking the spirit of Sculpture by the Sea from Bondi to Batlow, the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail was launched in regional NSW – offering a major new permanent sculpture trail across 100km of the Snowy Valleys Way – with world class sculptures in Adelong, Batlow, Tumbarumba, Tooma and local Tumbarumba vineyard cellar doors.

In 2022, Sculpture by the Sea celebrated staging 50 exhibitions in Australia and Denmark which has seen over 1,500 sculptors from across the globe and Australia exhibit over 4,000 sculptures to an audience of at least 13 million people since 1997, all thanks to David Handley’s original spark of inspiration.

Past and present Mayors of Waverley and Cottesloe, artists, art historians and gallery curators from across Australia, China, Denmark, New Zealand and Japan sent messages of congratulations and ongoing support - expressing what Sculpture by the Sea represents both from a personal perspective and on behalf of the people, places and artists involved.

Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi continues to delight almost half a million local and international visitors for three weeks in Spring.

Courtesy Sculpture by the Sea.