The Henry Moore Foundation is the charity set up by the British sculptor Henry Moore in 1977 to look after his work and to support sculpture more widely. Its website at henry-moore.org is the official home for two connected things: the visitor attraction at Perry Green in rural Hertfordshire, presented to the public as Henry Moore Studios and Gardens, and the foundation's broader role as a funder, archive and research body. The Hertfordshire site is at Perry Green, near Much Hadham, postcode SG10 6EE, with a visitor and enquiries line on 01279 843333. The foundation is a registered charity, number 271370.

Perry Green is where Henry Moore lived and worked for more than forty years, from 1940 until his death in 1986, and the foundation has kept the place largely as a working artist's estate rather than turning it into a conventional gallery. Visitors move between Hoglands, Moore's family home, several preserved studios where the work was actually made, and around seventy acres of gardens and sheep fields in which large bronze sculptures are sited as Moore intended, out in the open fields. Seeing the reclining figures and abstract forms against grass, hedges and sky, rather than in a white-walled room, is the point of the visit, and it is what makes Perry Green different from seeing Moore's work in a museum.

The website handles the visitor logistics that this kind of seasonal, rural attraction needs. Henry Moore Studios and Gardens is open seasonally, typically from spring through autumn rather than year-round, and the site carries opening dates, admission prices, advance booking, and clear directions to a location that is genuinely in the countryside and not easy to stumble upon. Perry Green has no railway station of its own, so the travel guidance covers driving and parking and the nearest stations, and it is worth reading before setting out. There is a visitor centre, a cafe and a shop on site, and guided tours and talks run on a published schedule. Accessibility information is provided, with the honest caveat that grass, gravel and the spread-out nature of an open estate make some areas harder going than a level indoor gallery would be.

Programming changes from season to season, and the site is where the current exhibitions, displays and events are listed. The foundation regularly stages temporary exhibitions that place Moore's work alongside that of other artists, and it hosts the Aldeburgh and other partnerships, family activities, and study days. For a quiet rural site the calendar is fuller than visitors expect, and checking the what's-on pages before a trip is sensible because the offering on any given day depends on the season and on which studios and exhibitions are open. Repeat visitors tend to time their trips around new displays and the better weather.

Beyond Perry Green, the foundation does a great deal that the public does not see directly, and the website documents this side too. It is one of the more significant funders of sculpture and the visual arts in the United Kingdom, awarding grants to artists, museums, galleries and researchers, and the grants section sets out what is supported and how to apply. It runs a research library and the Henry Moore archive, which holds the sculptor's papers, photographs and records, and it cares for the wider collection of his sculptures, drawings, prints, textiles and maquettes. Curators, art historians, students and writers use these resources, and the site explains how to arrange access to the archive and library, which is by appointment rather than on a drop-in basis.

The foundation also operates the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, a separate building dedicated to the study of sculpture of all periods, with exhibitions, a research programme and a sculpture archive. The website covers both locations, so a visitor needs to be a little careful to read whether a given exhibition or event is at Perry Green in Hertfordshire or in Leeds. For a Hertfordshire audience the relevant pages are clearly the Perry Green ones, but the dual nature of the organisation is a small thing to keep in mind when navigating the site.

It helps to know a little about why the place draws people from so far. Henry Moore became one of the defining sculptors of the twentieth century, known for his large reclining figures, mother-and-child groups and pierced abstract forms in bronze and stone, and his public sculptures stand in cities around the world. At Perry Green visitors see where that work was conceived and made, from the small maquette studio where ideas began as palm-sized models to the larger spaces where full-scale works took shape, and several of the major bronzes sited in the grounds are among his best-known compositions. The combination of intimate studios and monumental sculpture set out across open ground is what gives the visit its character, and the website's images convey that better than words do.

The foundation's conservation and lending work is another strand the site documents. Bronze and stone sculpture left in the open needs ongoing care, and the foundation maintains both the works at Perry Green and the wider collection in its keeping. It lends sculptures and drawings to exhibitions at museums and galleries internationally, so on any given visit some works may be away on loan, which the site flags where it can. This lending and the foundation's grant-giving extend Moore's influence well beyond Hertfordshire, supporting exhibitions and scholarship that most visitors to Perry Green never directly see but which sit behind the institution's national standing. For researchers, curators and partner institutions, the loans and archive pages are the practical point of contact.

It is fair to set expectations about the kind of day out this is. Perry Green rewards visitors who are genuinely interested in sculpture, in modern art, or in a calm walk through gardens and fields punctuated by major works. It is not a high-energy attraction for young children, although the open space and the family activities the foundation lays on do give children room to roam. The seasonal opening means it simply is not available in the depths of winter, and the rural setting that is its great strength is also its main practical drawback for anyone relying on public transport. None of this is hidden on the site; the practical pages are reasonably frank about what the place is and is not.

For the wider county, the foundation matters as a cultural and heritage institution of national standing that happens to be rooted in Hertfordshire. It preserves the home and working studios of one of the most internationally recognised British artists of the twentieth century, it draws visitors from across the country and abroad into a quiet corner of east Hertfordshire, and it supports the local visitor economy through the cafe, shop and the trade it brings to nearby villages. Schools, art students, researchers and tourists all engage with it in different ways, and it sits comfortably alongside the county's other major institutions as a reason people come to the area.

As a website, henry-moore.org is well designed and image-led, which suits an organisation built around a visual artist. The exhibition and visit pages are clear, the imagery gives a real sense of what the studios and gardens look like, and booking is straightforward. The main thing to watch, as noted, is checking which site an event belongs to and confirming seasonal opening before travelling. These are minor points against an attractive and informative official presence.

Within a Hertfordshire business directory, the Henry Moore Foundation is the kind of authoritative cultural entry that gives the listing real value, balancing the council, the university and the NHS trust with an arts and heritage institution of genuine standing. Linking to the verified henry-moore.org homepage points visitors, researchers and grant applicants to the official source rather than to ticketing resellers or third-party pages. Anyone using a business directory to explore what Hertfordshire offers beyond its everyday services will find Perry Green among the most distinctive entries, and the foundation's own site the right place to plan a visit or learn more.


Business address
The Henry Moore Foundation
Dane Tree House, Perry Green,
Much Hadham,
Hertfordshire
SG10 6EE
United Kingdom

Contact details
Phone: 01279 843333