Tate St Ives

The Tate now comprises nearly 70,000 works, spread across four separate museums: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives.

Tate St Ives is notable for offering visitors a chance to view works in the very surroundings which inspired the artist. With the view from the gallery taking in the town harbour and Porthmeor Beach, It is an unrivalled setting for the works of the celebrated St Ives School. Alongside the core figures associated with the area, including Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo, and their successors Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost and Peter Lanyon, the gallery has a large collection of contemporary art with a Cornish connection.

Permanent collections

The displays at the museum change regularly, allowing different parts of the Tate's extensive collection of St Ives art to be shown each year. The 2011 summer exhibition (14 May " 25 September) includes a room of works by American painter Agnes Martin; Martin Creed's Half the Air in a Given Space, which sees the sea-facing galleries filled with hundreds of ballons; and displays of work by Russian sculptor Naum Gabo, one of the pioneers of St Ives modernism.

The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden belong to The Tate and are included in the standard admission price (50% off with National Art Pass). Here also, the display setting is intimately linked with the creation of the art. The bronzes on display are seen in the environment in which they were created, and many remain in the position in which the artist herself placed them.  

Visitor information

Relax in style at the gallery's café, which offers views of the coastal landscapes that would prove so inspirational to the St Ives School.