Tate St Ives opened in 1993 and occupies a spectacular site overlooking Porthmeor Beach close to the home of Alfred Wallis and to the studios used by many of the artists whose works are exhibited. It is designed to show works of art in the surroundings and atmosphere in which they were created.

The small Cornish town of St Ives has attracted painters for over a century; amongst its early visitors were J.M.W. Turner, Whistler and the young Sickert. In 1928, on a visit to St Ives, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood discovered the work of retired mariner Alfred Wallis whose untutored paintings of town and seascapes had a profound influence on the development of their work. In 1939, with the outbreak of war, Nicholson returned to settle in St Ives with Barbara Hepworth, thus establishing in West Cornwall an outpost for the abstract avant-garde, international in outlook but strongly rooted in the local landscape. The potter, Bernard Leach, had been working in St Ives since 1920 and the ceramic tradition which he established with Shoji Hamada adds a further dimension to St Ives' international standing.

Tate St Ives: Porthmeor Beach, St Ives
Telephone: 01736 796226
E-mail: visiting.stives@tate.org.uk
Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden: Barnoon Hill, St Ives

Telephone: 01736 796226