Saturday, 4 July 2009

September Festival Preview - Tate St Ives


St Ives September Festival - Tate St Ives


Earlier in the week I reported that some of the planned Arts Programme had started to appear on the "official" festival website. This process has now mysteriously halted - with events listed up to Wednesday 16th September but only the Guildhall and Western gigs after that. Rather oddly some are listed as taking place in December 2008 - I suspect they are having trouble with their content management system.

So I thought I'd continue my series of previews - with what's on at Tate St Ives.

The main exhibition from now until September is Contemporary Fine and Applied Arts: 1928–2009. Open daily 10.00 - 17.00.
This includes work by Katy Moran (artist in residence), Carol Bove, Barbara Hepworth, Lucie Rie, Alfred Wallis, Bojan Šarčević and Lawrence Weiner. I haven't had a chance to visit yet but it looks like an interesting combination - apart from the inclusion of the ridiculously overrated Wallis.

Talking Painting - Saturday 12th September 11.00 - 12.30.
Explore new perspectives on work in the current exhibition through picture description, discussion and practical art activities. Designed for visitors with visual impairment but open to all. Free but booking required.

Tea and Tate - Monday 14th September 13.30 - 15.30.
A regular event for seniors, explore the exhibitions led by artist educators and take part in lively discussion. No knowledge of art required. Refreshments provided.
Free with gallery admission, booking required.

Hepworth Garden Walk and Talk - Monday 14th September 18.00 - 19.00.
Join Head Gardener Chris Green for an insightful tour of sculptor Barbara Hepworth's sub-tropical garden.
Tickets: £7.00 or £5.00 for Tate members.

Late at the Tate - Friday 25th September 19.30 - 23.00.
An evening of poetry and blues with Billy Childish - "A cult figure in America, Europe and Japan, Childish is by far the most prolific, painter, poet, and song-writer of his generation."
In the café which will be serving food and drinks.
Tickets: £15.00.
Free entrance to the gallery exhibitions and shop which are open until 21.00.

There is nothing listed yet for the new Young Tate group, but I imagine that they will be organising some events so it would be worth keeping an eye on their web page:

For more information or to book tickets visit the Tate website via the links above or call:
01736 796226.

More festival previews coming soon.

More events:

St Ives Cornwall - What's On This Week


The Adventures Of Soggy The Bear - St Ives Theatre


The week ahead sees quite a few events - as usual I'll highlight a few, a fuller listing is on my St Ives Calendar.

Sunday is Ayr Field Day - a full day of free fun for all the family in the heart of St Ives.
There is a whole load of stuff going on - some of which I previewed earlier this week.
All welcome. More details on their website.

On Monday night Freddy Zapp is back at The Sheaf of Wheat with his Karaoke Roadshow.

Tuesday sees the opening of Soggy The Bear- a children's theatre production based on the books by Phil Moran and Michael Foreman. St Ives Theatre - 10.30 and 14.00.
This then runs throughout the summer, at the theatre until 17th July then at St Ives Arts Club.
Details of the show and tickets:

On Wednesday there is the regular Life Drawing Class at St Ives School of Painting.
Starts at 19.30 - no need to book just turn up 10 minutes before.

On Thursday there is St Ives Farmers Market at The Backpackers on The Stennack.
Starts at 09.30 and closes at 14.00 - loads of nice local food and produce.
I've just completed their new website so check it out:

On Friday you might try the Roller Disco at St Ives Rugby Club - starts at 19.00

On Saturday Stackridge are at The Guildhall - the biggest gig of the month.
"The missing jewel in the crown that is British pop music"
Tickets available from St Ives Tourist Information: 01736 798577
or Ticket Hotline: 08000 588001.

As ever there is lots more going on - so take a look at my calendar - the best and most comprehensive guide to what's going on in St Ives Cornwall:

Thursday, 2 July 2009

St Ives Cornwall - Ayr Field Day


Ayr Field Day 2008 - Video by Eia Films

I previewed this earlier in June - but as Ayr Field Day is this Sunday - 5th July 2009 - I wanted to mention it again - please go along to support this great community event.

A full day of free fun for all the family in the heart of St Ives. 11.00am to 4.00pm.
  • Affordable BBQ
  • Vegetarian Food
  • Circus Skills Workshops
  • Live Music
  • Cornish Dancing
  • Bouncy Castle
  • Face Painting
Free entry.


Wednesday, 1 July 2009

St Ives Cornwall - Poetry




I spotted this graffiti on a wall along Fore Street.

Did a search on Google and discovered that its a poem by Fleur Conkling Heyliger, first published around 1952, called:

"The Answer (to an adopted child)".



Tuesday, 30 June 2009

St Ives September Festival - Arts Programme


Tate St Ives and St Ives School Of Painting

Some of the festival arts events have started to filter onto their official website.

So far they're only listed up to Wednesday 16th - so I assume that the rest will be appearing soon.

There will be events at The Arts Club, St Ives Library, St Ives Society of Artists, Leach Pottery, St Ives School of Painting, Tate St Ives and various other galleries. It looks like the usual mixed programme with something for most people.

One highlight looks like the Readers Day at the library on Monday 14th September. Writers listed to be there include ‘Zennor in Darkness’ author Helen Dunmore, historical mystery writer Anne Perry, Patrick Gale with his new book ‘The Whole Day Through’, crime writer Simon Hall and poet Jane Weir.

I'm also looking forward to hearing the next episode from Kelvin Bowers' book Scarper - he'll be reading from it at the library on Friday 25th September.

As previewed here previously there will be a short season of classic black and white movies at The Arts Club, Open Studios on the middle weekend and two wednesdays, daily art classes at The School Of Painting and Poetry In The Square every day at 12.30.

According to Tourist Information (I asked yesterday) they haven't been given any tickets for sale yet, but presumably will soon. They should also have a printed version of the programme available in the next week or so. It looks like tickets for events at the library are available from there. You can't buy tickets for any of these online either - at least so far.

Its worth noting that some events won't appear in the programme - either because they're regarded as "unofficial" or details were sent in too late for publication. Anna Chen and Charles Shaar Murray will both be giving early evening talks at The Arts Club - I'll be previewing them soon. Rod Bullimore and Martyn Barker will be presenting an evening of original comedy and music there on Wednesday 23rd. My wife Jo will be running two textile art workshops. I believe that Bob Devereux is planning a few events at The Salthouse Gallery (more later when he confirms details) and will be running a Big Frug on Thursday 24th.

Monday, 29 June 2009

St Ives Cornwall - Dolly Pentreath



One of my favourite sights in St Ives Harbour is The Dolly Pentreath.

A traditional Cornish fishing lugger which you can board in St Ives for trips along the coast to Seal Island and other locations.

This is also a chance to showcase another great video by Alban Roinard - so enjoy!



Sunday, 28 June 2009

St Ives Cornwall - Best Website




I thought I'd get a bit of interaction going here with a simple question:

Which is St Ives best website ?

I will modestly exclude my own OneStIves site and this blog from proceedings.

If you want to check -the most comprehensive listing of St Ives sites is here:


Let me know what you think and add comments below.