Tate St Ives

Tate St Ives is an art gallery in the Cornish town of St Ives, built on the site of a former gasworks. It overlooks Porthmeor beach and houses modern British art with strong links to the area. The gallery also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, taken over in 1980. Architects Eldred Evans and David Shalev designed the original building, completed in 1993. A major expansion doubled the gallery’s space and reopened in 2017 after two years of refurbishment. The gallery is one of the UK’s most visited attractions, drawing over 120,000 visitors in its first year. It has hosted notable exhibitions, including Rebecca Warren’s solo show in 2017 and Virginia Woolf-inspired displays in 2018. Recent shows have featured artists like Barbara Hepworth and the Casablanca Art School. The gallery won the Art Fund Museum of the Year Prize in 2018 and a Civic Trust Award in 2019. Its exhibitions often explore themes of magic, modernity and local artistic traditions. Inside, visitors find a rotunda at the gallery’s centre, offering views over Porthmeor Beach. The expanded space includes a new 500 square metre gallery for large-scale works. The Barbara Hepworth Museum features sculptures and drawings by the renowned artist. Outside, the sculpture garden displays her bronzes among coastal planting. The gallery’s light-filled rooms and sea views create a fitting setting for modern art.