Artist Andy Goldsworthy on gathering gravestones: This is my best work yet

Goldsworthy has received £200,000, which is all going to the construction of the work, from a new art prize, being revealed exclusively by BBC News.

Called ‘Dent in the Universe’, every year a six figure sum will be offered to an artist to create a work somewhere in the UK that is free for the public to visit.

The money comes from the Hugo Burge Foundation and is, according to its CEO Lucy Brown, the biggest single source for a public artwork now available in the UK.

Brown told me commissioning beautiful works of art for the public to enjoy used to be part of civic life.

“That’s really fallen away and we wanted to do something with this prize to make a positive difference to people’s experience of art… We want really bold works. We want things that will endure so that actually it’s made a difference to people”.

The money was left in perpetuity by the art philanthropist and founder of the travel search engine Cheap Flights, Hugo Burge, who died in 2023 aged just 51.