Tate St Ives awarded funding to restore the historic Palais de Danse

Coinciding with the Heritage Fund’s #HeritageTreasures day, Tate St Ives is proud to announce it has been awarded £2.8 million in funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore and reopen the historic Palais de Danse in St Ives. Closed to the public for 65 years, this landmark building will be reimagined as a vibrant cultural and community space, revealing a unique 300-year story linking British art history – through the work of Barbara Hepworth, one of Britain’s greatest modern artists – and the building’s significance to the local community.

The Grade II listed Palais de Danse has played a vital role in St Ives’s artistic and social heritage. Originally a cinema and dance hall in the early 1900s, it later became Hepworth’s second studio from 1961 to 1975, where she created some of her most celebrated works, including the monumental Single Form 1961–4. This transformative project will restore key elements of the building, including the grid-marked floor in the lower workshop which still bears the outline of Single Form, and the dance hall, with its 24-metre sprung maple floor and recreated glassine screens designed by Hepworth.

The restoration will feature an immersive recreation of Hepworth’s workshop spaces on the ground floor, offering visitors a glimpse into her creative process. The first floor’s expansive dance hall will be revitalised as a ‘living heritage’ space, hosting performances, screenings, and community activities. For the first time, the yard outside will be opened to the public, providing a new workshop and outdoor space for hands on art making. Through year-round community programming, this will inspire creative skills development. Enhanced accessibility, including a step-free design, will also ensure the Palais welcomes everyone.

Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have secured funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Palais de Danse project. This brings us to two-thirds of our fundraising goal and marks a significant milestone in our journey to transform this historic building that, from 1961–75, was Barbara Hepworth’s studio where she made some of her most ambitious large-scale works. We are excited to be working towards re-imagining the Palais de Danse as a vibrant heritage site that builds on Hepworth’s remarkable legacy and actively engages our local communities.”

Stuart McLeod, Director of England – London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “One of the things that stood out for us with Tate St Ives and Palais de Dance was the huge impact this project will have on the community and people of St Ives, as well as the wider impact for Cornwall. The project will help boost the local economy and create new spaces for interpretation with creative engagement, and focus on developing young people through new skills and apprenticeships"

Alongside funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, made possible by National Lottery players, the project has also received support from several trusts, foundations, and individuals, including The Headley Trust, The Bowness Family, The Hepworth Estate, The Porthmeor Fund, and The Bridget Riley Art Foundation.

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Abouth the Palais de Danse

Built on the site of an old naval school, the Palais de Danse initially opened as St Ives’s first cinema in 1911. It became a dance hall in 1925 and went on to serve as an important hub for community events during the Second World War and beyond. The building was later bought by Barbara Hepworth in 1961 to use as her second studio. This gave her the space to create larger and more complex sculptures and to host events and display her work. Having remained untouched since Hepworth’s death in 1975, the Palais was given to Tate by members of the artist’s family in 2015, just as the neighbouring Trewyn Studio had been given to Tate in 1980 as the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. Together these buildings were home to the entire scope of Hepworth’s creative work from 1949 to 1975.

About Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden

Opened in 1993 and expanded in 2017, Tate St Ives explores the area’s unique role in the story of modern art, provides a platform for cutting-edge contemporary artists from around the world, and runs a programme of events and projects developed for and with the town of St Ives. It also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden and is the only Tate gallery to have a dedicated Artist Residency programme. Tate St Ives was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, the UK’s most prestigious museum award. Visit tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives.

About The National Lottery Heritage Fund

As the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future as set out in the strategic plan, Heritage 2033. Over the next ten years, the Heritage Fund aims to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to bring about benefits for people, places and the natural environment. The Heritage Fund helps protect, transform and share the things from the past that people care about, from popular museums and historic places, the natural environment and fragile species, to the languages and cultural traditions that celebrate who we are. The Heritage Fund is passionate about heritage and committed to driving innovation and collaboration to make a positive difference to people’s lives today, while leaving a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy. Visit heritagefund.org.uk, follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund.