Tate St Ives

Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, that exhibits work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. It is part of the Tate group of museums, which also includes Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and Tate Liverpool. Opened in 1993, it was the second regional gallery established by the Tate after Tate Liverpool. The gallery occupies a prominent coastal position overlooking Porthmeor Beach and has become one of the most visited attractions in the United Kingdom. It also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in the same town, a responsibility assumed by the Tate group in 1980.

The Tate's involvement in St Ives began in 1980 when the group took over management of the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, dedicated to the life and work of the renowned St Ives sculptor. This connection led to the decision to open a dedicated museum in the town to showcase local artists, particularly those already represented in Tate's collection. In 1988, the Tate purchased a former gasworks site and commissioned architects Eldred Evans and David Shalev to design the new gallery. Construction began in 1991, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Henry Moore Foundation, and public donations. The building was completed in 1993, and the gallery opened in June of that year, attracting more than 120,000 visitors before the end of the year. In 1999, Tate St Ives held an exhibition called As Dark as Light to celebrate the solar eclipse, for which St Ives was predicted to be the first British town to witness the event; the exhibition featured work by Garry Fabian Miller, Gia Edzveradze, and Yuko Shiraishi alongside art from local schoolchildren. By 2012, the need for more space led to a competition for a design team to build a major extension, won by Jamie Fobert Architects. In January 2015, the gallery received £3.9 million toward the new extension, intended to double available space to accommodate year-round visitorship. Building contractor BAM Construct UK was appointed to add a 1,200 square metre extension, with original architects Evans and Shalev involved in works to the existing building. The gallery closed in October 2015 for two years of construction and reopened in October 2017 with the inaugural exhibition in the new 500 square metre gallery: a solo show by contemporary sculptor Rebecca Warren titled All that heaven allows. The refurbished institution quickly garnered recognition, winning the Art Fund Museum of the Year Prize in July 2018 and a Civic Trust Award in 2019. The new building also reached the shortlist for the 2018 Stirling Prize, though it was beaten by Foster + Partners' Bloomberg Building in London.

Tate St Ives focuses on modern British artists associated with the St Ives area, particularly those connected to the St Ives School. The gallery's mission encompasses both preserving the history of twentieth-century art in St Ives and presenting new work by artists from farther afield. Its artist-in-residence programme is designed to develop the professional practice of artists living and working throughout Cornwall. The collection and exhibition programme reflect the area's significance as an artists' colony that emerged from international twentieth-century art movements. The St Ives School itself developed from a pivotal 1928 meeting between Alfred Wallis, Ben Nicholson, and Christopher Wood, which established the coastal town as a centre for artistic activity. The wartime arrival of Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, and Naum Gabo in 1939 created an outpost of abstract avant-garde art in West Cornwall, followed by a postwar generation that included Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Roger Hilton, Bryan Wynter, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. Earlier, in 1920, Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada had established a pottery in St Ives, creating an initial connection between the town and international twentieth-century art movements.

The gallery's holdings and exhibitions centre on artists of the St Ives School and related modern British figures. Artists represented include Alfred Wallis, Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Bernard Leach, Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Roger Hilton, Bryan Wynter, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Frances Hodgkins, Ian Hamilton Finlay, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Marianne Stokes, John Reinhard Weguelin, Stanhope Forbes, Simon Starling, Sandra Blow, Yankel Feather, Alan Lowndes, and Tony O'Malley. Notable exhibitions at the gallery have included The Dark Monarch - Magic and Modernity in British Art (2009-2010), The Indiscipline of Painting (2011-2012), Patrick Heron (2018), Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired by Her Writings (2018), Naum Gabo (2020), Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life (2022-2023), Casablanca Art School (2023-2024), and Beatriz Milhazes: Maresias (2024). Contemporary and international artists have also been featured, including Rebecca Warren, Rosalind Nashashibi and Lucy Skaer, Amie Siegel, Anna Boghiguian, Huguette Caland, Otobong Nkanga, Haegue Yang, Petrit Halilaj, Outi Pieski, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, and Liliane Lijn.

The Tate St Ives building was constructed between 1988 and 1993 on the site of a former gasworks overlooking Porthmeor Beach. The original three-storey building was designed by architects Eldred Evans and David Shalev in a style sympathetic to the industrial heritage of the site, featuring a central rotunda with views over the beach. The 2015-2017 expansion, designed by Jamie Fobert Architects with BAM Construct UK as building contractor, added 1,200 square metres of space and included a new 500 square metre gallery. The original architects, Evans and Shalev, were also involved in works to the existing building during this expansion, which doubled the overall size of the gallery. The building's coastal location provides direct views of Porthmeor Beach from the rotunda and gallery spaces.

Tate St Ives is located in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. The gallery is owned and operated by the Tate group. Following its 2017 reopening, it has remained among the most visited attractions in the UK, with approximately 210,000 visitors annually reported in recent years. The gallery's website is http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/. The institution serves as both a repository for the St Ives artistic heritage and an active contemporary exhibition space, with its expanded facilities allowing for year-round programming without the previous need to close between exhibitions. The gallery's educational facilities were also improved as part of the 2015-2017 expansion.