Tate St Ives is an

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

in St Ives,

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, in 1980. The Tate St Ives was built between 1988 and 1993 on the site of an old gasworks and looks over Porthmeor beach. In 2015, it received funding for an expansion, doubling the size of the gallery, and closed in October 2015 for refurbishment. The gallery re-opened in October 2017 and is among the most visited attractions in the UK.

History

In 1980,

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

group started to manage the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, dedicated to the life and work of the renowned St Ives artist. The group decided to open a museum in the town, to showcase local artists, especially those already held in their collection. In 1988, the group purchased a former gasworks and commissioned architects Eldred Evans and

David Shalev David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

, to design a building for the gallery in a similar style to the gas works. The building began in 1991, funded by the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...

, the

Henry Moore Foundation The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore, and to promote the public appreciation of sculpt ...

and donations from the public. It included a

rotunda A rotunda () is any roofed building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It may also refer to a round room within a building (an example being the one below the dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). ...

at the centre of the gallery, looking over

Porthmeor Beach Porthmeor (from , meaning "large cove") is a hamlet that consists of two farms, Higher and Lower Porthmeor, in the parish of Zennor in Cornwall, England. It should not be confused with Porthmeor beach at St Ives. Higher Porthmeor lies along the ...

and was completed in 1993. The gallery opened in June 1993, the second of the Tate's regional galleries after

Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool is an art gallery in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The gallery was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporatio ...

, receiving more than 120,000 visitors before the end of the year. In 1999, to celebrate the

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

(as St Ives was predicted to be the first British town to witness the event), Tate St Ives held an exhibition called ''As Dark as Light'', exhibiting work from

Garry Fabian Miller Garry Fabian Miller HonFRPS (born 1957) is a British photographic artist. Since the 1986, he has specialised in camera-less photography. His work was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2005, at the Rencontres d'Arles in t ...

, Gia Edzveradze and Yuko Shiraishi alongside art from local schoolchildren. In 2012, Tate St Ives ran a competition for a design team to build a major extension, which was won by Jamie Fobert Architects. In January 2015, the Tate St Ives received £3.9 million to contribute towards the new extension, with the intention of doubling the available space in order to accommodate tourists throughout the year, without having to close between exhibitions. The building contract was awarded to BAM Construct UK, who would be adding a extension designed by Jamie Fobert, with the original architect's involvement in works to the existing building. The Tate St Ives was closed in October 2015 for these works and remained closed for two years. Tate St Ives reopened in October 2017, with the inaugural exhibition in the new 500m2 gallery a solo show by contemporary sculptor Rebecca Warren, 'All that heaven allows'. In July 2018, Tate St. Ives won the Art Fund

Museum of the Year The Museum of the Year Award, formerly known as the Gulbenkian Prize and the Art Fund Prize, is an annual prize awarded to a museum or Art gallery, gallery in the United Kingdom for a "track record of imagination, innovation and excellence". Th ...

Prize, beating the other shortlisted museums (the

Brooklands Museum Brooklands Museum is a motoring and aviation museum occupying part of the former Brooklands Motor Course in Weybridge, Surrey, England. Formally opened in 1991, the museum is operated by the independent Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd, a private l ...

, the

Ferens Art Gallery The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Dav ...

Glasgow Women's Library Glasgow Women's Library is a public library, registered company and charity based in the Bridgeton, Glasgow, Bridgeton area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the only accredited museum dedicated to women's history and provides information relevant to ...

and the

Postal Museum, London The Postal Museum (formerly the British Postal Museum & Archive) is a postal museum run by the Postal Heritage Trust. It began in 2004 as The British Postal Museum & Archive and opened in Central London as The Postal Museum on 28 July 2017. Si ...

) to the £100,000 prize. Later that month, the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

announced that the new Tate building had reached the shortlist for the 2018

Stirling Prize The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ...

. It was beaten by the Bloomberg Building in London, by

Foster + Partners Foster and Partners (also Foster + Partners) is a British international architecture firm with its headquarters in London, England. It was founded in 1967 by British architect and designer Norman Foster. The firm has been involved in the design ...

. In 2019, Tate St Ives won a

Civic Trust Award The Civic Trust Awards scheme is a British awards scheme to recognise outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment. It was established in 1959, and is the longest-standing built environment awards scheme in Europe. The ...

Exhibitions

Notable exhibitions prior to the refurbishment include: *

Simon Carroll Simon Carroll (1964-2009) was a British studio potter. Carroll has permanent collections at the V&A museum London and Amgueddfa Cymru. Life Carroll was born in Hereford and educated at Hereford College of Arts followed by UWE Bristol where ...

, 8 October 2005 – 15 January 2006 *''The Dark Monarch - Magic and Modernity in British Art,'' 10 October 2009 -10 January 2010 *''The Indiscipline of Painting,'' 8 October 2011 – 3 January 2012 touring to Warwick Art Centre (2011/12) Since the refurbishment, Tate St Ives has showcased the following exhibitions: *

Rebecca Warren Rebecca Jane Warren (born 1965) is a British visual artist and sculptor,"Rebecca Warren RA"
Royal Aca ...

''All That Heaven Allows,'' 14 October 2017 – 7 January 2018 * ''

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

: An Exhibition Inspired by Her Writings,'' 10 February – 29 April 2018 *

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced ...

, 19 May – 30 September 2018 (In association with

Turner Contemporary Turner Contemporary is an art gallery in Margate, Kent, England, intended as a contemporary arts space and catalyst for the regeneration of the town. The title commemorates the association of the town with noted landscape painter J. M. W. Turne ...

) * Rosalind Nashashibi and Lucy Skaer, ''Thinking through other artists'' 20 October 2018 – 6 January 2019 *'' Amie Siegel: Provenance,'' 20 October 2018 – 6 May 2019 * Anna Boghiguian, 19 January – 6 May 2019 *

Huguette Caland Huguette Caland (; née El Khoury; 19 January 1931 – 23 September 2019) was a Lebanese painter, sculptor and fashion designer known for her erotic abstract paintings and body landscapes. Based out of Los Angeles, her art was displayed in numer ...

, 24 May 2019 – 1 September 2019 *

Otobong Nkanga Otobong Nkanga (born 1974) is a Nigerian-born visual artist, tapestry maker and performance artist, based in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2015, she won the Yanghyun Prize. In her work she explores the social and topographical changes of her environmen ...

12 October 2019 - 5 January 2020 *

Naum Gabo Naum Gabo (born Naum Neemia Pevsner; Russian language, Russian: Наум Борисович Певзнер; Hebrew language, Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר) (23 August 1977) was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's ...

25 January - 3 May 2020 *''

Haegue Yang Haegue Yang (; born December 12, 1971) is a South Korean artist primarily working in sculpture and installation. After receiving her B.F.A from Seoul National University in 1994, Yang received an M.A. from Städelschule where she now teaches as ...

: Strange Attractors'', 24 October 2020 - 3 May 2021, later extended until 26 September 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. *

Petrit Halilaj Petrit Halilaj (born 1986) is a Kosovar visual artist living and working among Germany, Kosovo, and Italy. The name " Petrit" literally means "Falcon". His work is based on documents, stories, and memories related to the history of Kosovo. Wit ...

, 16 October 2021 - 16 January 2022. *''

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadin ...

: Art & Life'', 26 November 2022 - 1 May 2023 * Casablanca Art School, 27 May 2023 - 14 January 2024 *

Outi Pieski Outi Pieski (born 1973) is a Sámi visual artist from Finland whose paintings, collages and installations employ traditional handicrafts such as the tassels of Sámi shawls to depict the light and landscapes of the far north. In 2017, she was hon ...

, 10 February - 6 May 2024 *''

Beatriz Milhazes Beatriz Milhazes (born 1960) is a Brazilian artist. She is known for her work juxtaposing Brazilian cultural imagery and references to western Modernist painting. Milhazes is a Brazilian-born collage artist and painter known for her large-scale ...

: Maresias'', 25 May - 29 September 2024 *

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (Polish pronunciation: ; born 1978) is a Polish-Romani artist, sculptor, painter, activist, feminist and educator, the winner of the Paszport Polityki Polish art award. In 2022 Mirga-Tas represented Poland at the 59th Venice ...

, 19 October 2024 - 5 January 2025

Notes

References

External links

Tate St Ives website
{{authority control Tate St Ives 1993 establishments in England Art museums and galleries established in 1993 Art museums and galleries in St Ives, Cornwall Modern art museums in the United Kingdom Culture of Cornwall Museums sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Recipients of Civic Trust Awards

History

Exhibitions

See also

Notes

References

External links