Field Trip 4: Studios and Stones: new perspectives, new stories
Taking the St Ives artists’ colony as a starting point, this journey will create a series of dialogues across time with the places, spaces, stories and mythologies associated with artists in the far west of Cornwall.
The tour will begin in the public space of the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, followed by a rare opportunity to visit her private studio and workshop in the former Palais de Danse building opposite. Moving on to the historic Porthmeor Studios on the beach front, the tour will include Studio No. 5 whose former occupants include Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron and more recently contemporary artists Ged Quinn, Kerstin Kartscher, Katy Moran and Jonty Lees through the Tate St Ives Residency Programme.
The journey continues along the scenic coastal road, towards Lands End, to the ancient village of Zennor and its strong associations with Celtic mythology and tradition. There will then be a very special opportunity to visit Eagles Nest, the house and garden of the late Patrick Heron, perched high above the Atlantic, that was his home and studio for over 30 years. After lunch at the Tinners Arms (where DH Lawrence lodged before moving to a nearby cottage in 1915), the trip continues with a walk to the remote Carn cottage, rumoured to have been used by the notorious magician Aleister Crowley, and later home to the artist Bryan Wynter. The route concludes by crossing the West Penwith moors at the narrowest point of the pensinsula, dropping down to Penzance and The Exchange Gallery via the ancient and mysterious standing stones of Lanyon Quoit and Men-an-Tol.
This field trip has been devised by Tate St Ives around the research interests of the Tate Research Centre: Creative Communities. Accompanying the tour, and providing a rather different take on the itinerary, Simon Fujiwara will provide a personal commentary, recalling his experiences of the locale as a teenager growing up there in the nineties.
Tate Research Centre: Creative Communities
Building upon the legacy of the St Ives artist colony in Cornwall, the Centre at Tate St Ives aims to encourage research into the origins, activities and future of creative communities in the Britain and elsewhere.
The principal focus will be visual arts practice, but the Centre also seeks to investigate the significance of past and present groupings that include other types of creative practitioners such as designers and writers. Themes include artist colonies, contemporary residency programmes, as well as temporary and virtual creative communities. The Centre will bring together researchers from many subject areas to further academic, practice-based and action research in this field. Key research strands include:
– The history of the artist colony, in and beyond Cornwall, as a national and international phenomenon from the nineteenth century to the present day.
– The nature of contemporary artist communities, with a focus upon residencies at Tate St Ives, and comparative studies with national and international partners.
– The role of art institutions in relation to creativity in communities.
The Centre will host a series of workshops and seminar events, leading to conferences and publications. Its programme will involve collaboration with regional universities and partners, as well as the participation of institutions and individual scholars from all parts of the United Kingdom and abroad.
For further information, please contact the Centre’s convenor, Susan Lamb, Head of Learning, Tate St Ives
Read Lynn Parr’s report on the Studios and Stones field trip on the Record page.