The Tate gallery, St Ives, Cornwall is a gallery to visit for a variety of reasons including (in no particular order!): the art, the view and the building.

The Building
The gallery was designed in the 90’s by the architects David and Elizabeth Shalleth to occupy the site of the old town gasworks, which overlooks the world famous Porthmeor surfing beach.
The site is both spectacular and vertiginous and the gallery has followed the scale of the old gasworks up the hill with galleries and public spaces rising over four floors. The main gallery looks out over the beach and provides a spectacular backdrop to some beautiful contemporary art (but more of the art later). The materials used in the building echo local building techniques but still instil a modern feeling to this beautiful building which seems to have been in the town for a long time. When the gallery originally opened there was a space for storing your surfboard, which unfortunately has been subsumed into the check in but it still is a beautiful building, housing some spectacular 20th century art.

The Art
The gallery has a remit to display work from the 20th century with a particular emphasis on the Cornish school but to place this in context with modern art from around the world and this has produced some spectacular shows from Artists including: Barbara Hepworth, Sir Terry Frost, Patrick Heron (who designed the enormous stained glass window in the first room that you come to) and the list goes on. The gallery also has a display of works from the Tates own collection, which provides an intriguing contrast to some of the newer works. The gallery also houses a collection of studio pottery from the Winfeld Digby collection with a beautiful collection of Bernard Leach, which can be seen in the upper main gallery.

The view
There are two main views to be seen from the gallery, the main one being the panoramic view of Porthmeor beach and the other from the café overl
ooking Downalong and the harbour. Both views are worth the admission price alone and if you only want to use the café you don’t have to pay!

So all in all this is a great place to visit for all of the previously stated reasons and if you are in the area do have a look around

ALF