Only at Tate St Ives could an exhibition be named after a Beach Boys song. If Everybody Had an Ocean – the opening line of Surfin' USA – was the title of last summer's exhibition based on the life and music of Beach Boy Brian Wilson.
Wilson's music was used as an entry point to look at developments in art inspired by Southern California from the 1960s. Selected by Alex Farquharson, the exhibition of work by 31 artists – including John Cage, Bridget Riley and Jennifer West – explored the interplay between avant-garde and popular culture, psychedelia and the dystopian elements of the Californian dream.
Free beer, magazines and shopping were themes in another exhibition running at the same time. Visitors may have been disappointed not to actually get free beer – instead, the work by Danish collective Superflex explored the idea of 'open source', making the ingredients of a sought-after product freely available. This was part of Social Systems, a partnership with ProjectBase to bring international artists to Cornwall. Other artists included Regina Möller, with work based around the format of women's magazines, and Surasi Kusolwong, whose temporary Thai market turned cheap, mass-produced items into desirable art objects.
Tate St Ives' artist in residence during the autumn and winter was Jonty Lees, a Cornwall-based artist working with sculpture, video and installation. Bicycles, Blu-Tack and Bratwurst have all featured in his work, in which he examines the oddities of human behaviour. Lees worked with St Ives Junior School on the Tag FM project, challenging the idea of 'making your mark' on the community. October to January also saw an exhibition of Kenneth and Mary Martin, which included Mary Martin's Inversions 1966, especially restored for the exhibition.
For the spring 2008 season, Tate St Ives held three exhibitions on artists with strong links to Cornwall. The Rose Hilton retrospective covered almost six decades of paintings and drawings of Cornwall's landscapes and interiors. Margo Maeckelberghe, known for her coastal landscapes, featured in a show drawing on three distinct periods of her work. And Hugh Stoneman: Master Printmaker revisited some of the late Cornwall-based master printer's key collaborations over four decades.
Susan Daniel-McElroy retired as Director of Tate St Ives in June 2007 after seven years at the helm, during which she enhanced the gallery's reputation as a place to see distinctive exhibitions. Her role has been split, and the gallery is now led by Artistic Director Martin Clark, and Executive Director Mark Osterfield.
Tate St Ives looks out over Porthmeor Beach, and the beach itself has at times been part of the gallery's activities.
In August 2007, the Beach Workshop – previously held on alternate days – became a daily fixture. It linked with the Social Systems and If Everybody Had an Ocean exhibitions, and was hugely popular with families on the beach. Being out on the sand creates a liberating environment, where activities can include 'wet materials' such as paint and glitter, but these activities also draw families into the gallery itself.
But not every family can be found on the beach, and other year-round initiatives have reached further afield. HiART is a partnership between Tate St Ives, Penwith Family Services and Barnardo's. The project aims to widen the Tate St Ives family programme to rural families in West Penwith and to families with disabled children. This includes an outreach programme targeting deprived rural communities between St Ives and Land's End.
The Super Sunday Family Programme continued its free monthly creative days for families, and the gallery also promoted its work at local community festivals May Day and Ayr Field Day.
St Ives is home to many active community groups, and in the past year a number of these groups has been invited for special visits to the gallery. The Community Visits Programme gives these groups 'taster' sessions, including free gallery tours. Groups visiting so far have included the National Coastwatch Institution, St Ives Library staff and the nearby Meadow Flats residents.
Two other community initiatives were launched during the past year: Tate Voice, and a Community Liaison Group.
Tate Voice is directly linked to Phase 2, Tate's plans to create more gallery and learning space to accommodate its many visitors. It's an advocacy programme working to keep the community updated with accurate information about the progress of Phase 2.
Last year's consultation period on Phase 2 made clear the importance of Tate maintaining active relationships with the community. The Community Liaison Group is a result of that, and goes beyond discussions of Phase 2 itself.
The Group is made up of an array of individuals – including the police, local businesspeople and representatives from Meadow Flats. It was set up in the summer of 2007 and meets informally every couple of months, as a channel for the community to share ideas and feedback with Tate and Tate with the community.
