The Vision
Tate St Ives occupies a unique position in the world of modern and contemporary art. Created in 1993 to celebrate the legacy of the St Ives modernists, the gallery sits in an unmatched location overlooking the Atlantic, in the heart of the community in St Ives. It symbolises the moment when the creativity of this very specific place connected with the development of international modernism, when the local and particular connected with and influenced the wider world.
In recognition of this cultural history Tate St Ives is developing as an international centre for art and exchange at the heart of Cornwall. Through the platforms of the Barbara Hepworth Museum and the gallery (Tate St Ives), Tate offers a programme of international modern and contemporary art presented in the unique context of St Ives. Central to this offer is the internationalism and quality of the programme, access to the Tate collection, and a developing culture of audience interaction. Tate St Ives is a potential connector between art, artists and audiences, between the local and the global. The proposals to extend the gallery aim to create the capacity to realise that potential.
The four key drivers for the future development of Tate St Ives are:
Art
Offering a comprehensive exhibitions and displays programme encompassing the re-examination of modernism in St Ives, the best of international contemporary art, and better access to the Tate collection
Audiences
Ensuring our programme engages with a diverse visiting and resident audience, developing new models of engagement, and cultural interaction
Research
Embedding our programme in a research based ethos centred on the Tate Research Centre: Creative Communities
Art practice
Positioning artists and their practice at the centre of programme, research and audience dialogues.
Current success
Tate St Ives attracts approximately 200,000 visitors a year; in 2003, the year of the Hepworth Centenary, it attracted 267,000 visitors. An interest in the St Ives modernists, the appeal of the gallery’s architecture, the attraction of the Tate brand, and the current excitement around contemporary art, all contribute to the success of Tate St Ives. In 2009 the gallery brought approximately £12m into the Cornish economy, and in the summer of 2010 9% of visitors to Cornwall came with the intention of visiting Tate St Ives.
Responding to this demand the gallery offers a mixed programme of exhibitions related to the St Ives modernists, international modern and contemporary art, and works from the Tate collection. Arranged across three seasons (January, May and October) the programme offers a complete re-hang of the galleries, a series of public events and learning activities related to the current exhibition, and an ongoing engagement with key developmental audiences with a special emphasis on children, young people, families, and the local community.
Building on this success, the Tate St Ives Phase 2 proposals offer the opportunity to transform the gallery into a dynamic hub, offering the space for a full programme of art and audience activity, and a public platform for the outputs of the associated research and artist residency programmes.
The challenge
Tate St Ives currently offers a world class programme of exhibitions and displays. However, with only 500 square metres of gallery space of a type that is more suitable for domestic scale work, we are limited in the programme that we can offer at any one time. In addition, the current loading and art handling facilities limit the scale of works we can accommodate and, added to the constraints on gallery space, lead to the need for the gallery to close for six weeks per annum for the change over of exhibitions and displays.
Tate St Ives also programmes a broad range of learning activities, designed to meet the specific needs of communities in Cornwall, and the needs of the rest of our visitors. These include workshops for families and young people, sessions for hard to reach communities including older people and people with disabilities, school tours, teacher training, and events aimed at the creative and educational sectors. These programmes are currently at capacity, catering in 2010/11 for 32,000 public programme users and 9,500 participants in visiting groups. At present the only dedicated learning space is a courtyard with a temporary roof, where heat, glare, acoustic problems and limited capacity are all issues that need to be urgently addressed.
Due to the success of Tate St Ives, the gallery which was designed for an estimated 70,000 visitors each year, now receives over 200,000 visitors each year, with up to 2,000 visitors per day during summer months. Capacity at Tate St Ives cannot meet visitor demand: the galleries are often overcrowded, queues form for the café and toilets; and the shop can become very congested.
Finally the gallery employs approximately 60 full-time staff, 60 volunteers, and a large pool of artist educators, Young Tate and community facilitators. In the future we are keen to better support this team, and expand it to include more internships and apprenticeships, as well as visiting researchers and artists. As the back of house facilities at Tate St Ives are very limited, we are looking at securing some off site office accommodation, but need to create onsite facilities which will cater for the needs of essential staff and offer flexible accommodation for visiting staff and temporary placements.
Mark Osterfield
Executive Director, Tate St Ives