August 23, 2018: Ceiling inside the St Ives Tate Modern art gallery.

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Tate St Ives

Top choice in St Ives


After an 18-month, multimillion-pound refit, St Ives' most illustrious gallery reopened its doors, complete with a monumental exhibition space that's been added to the museum's original, spiral-shaped core. Focusing on the coterie of experimental artists who congregated at St Ives after the WWII and turned the little seaside town into a mecca of modern art, the museum showcases the work of luminaries such as Barbara Hepworth, Terry Frost, Peter Lanyon and Patrick Heron in luminous, white-walled surroundings.

The original museum was built in 2000, a striking concrete-and-glass curl set back from the sands of Porthmeor Beach. This part of the museum explores the St Ives story and its role in the development of modern art, with a revolving collection of works by both the well-known artists (Hepworth, Nicholson, Lanyon and so on) along with more unfamiliar names such as Naum Gabo and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.

The new exhibition space has added a huge, open, 500-sq-metre gallery to the original building, Filled with natural light and supported by hefty steel beams running across the space (capable of supporting elephants and a double-decker bus, apparently), it's designed to host an annual exhibition of work by one contemporary artist, to serve as a contextual counterpoint to the main gallery's collection. Whatever you make of the work on show, the gallery itself certainly makes a statement.

There's also a cafe with cracking views over the beach.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby St Ives attractions

1. Porthmeor Beach

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2. St Ives Society of Artists

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3. Barbara Hepworth Museum

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4. St Ia Church

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At the top of Tregenna Hill, St Ives' parish church dates in part from the 15th century.

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On the grassy promontory known as the Island, between Porthmeor and Porthminster, is the tiny pre-14th-century Chapel of St Nicholas, patron saint of…

6. Porthgwidden Beach

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8. Leach Pottery

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