The Pier Arts Centre is an art gallery and museum in

Stromness Stromness (, non, Straumnes; nrn, Stromnes) is the second-most populous town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the southwestern part of Mainland Orkney. It is a burgh with a parish around the outside with the town of Stromness as its capital. E ...

, Orkney, Scotland. It was established in 1979 to provide a home for an important collection of fine art donated to "be held in trust for Orkney" by the author, peace activist and philanthropist Margaret Gardiner (1904–2005). Alongside the permanent collection the Centre curates a year-round programme of changing exhibitions and events.

History

18th and 19th centuries

The buildings occupied by The Pier Arts Centre are firmly rooted in the history of Orkney. The house fronting the street was built in the 18th century, and during much of the 19th century was occupied by Edward Clouston, a prosperous merchant and Agent of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

. On the pier behind the house, Clouston erected stores and offices. On the first floor of his house, he had a finely panelled drawing room, furnished with books, family portraits, and a pianoforte. The arrival early each summer of the Hudson's Bay Company ships en route for Canada was a social highlight in Stromness. In June 1840, Mr and Mrs Clouston entertained for a week a party of ladies travelling to join their husbands in the Hudson's Bay Company. Their daughter, Anne Rose, married Augustus Edward Pelly of Montreal, a relative of John Henry Pelly, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1822 to 1852 and of the Bank of England in 1841–42. In 1872 the premises came into the possession of John Aim Shearer, whose general merchant's business was to last nearly 100 years. In the late 19th century, Stromness was a flourishing centre of the herring fishing. J. A. Shearer erected a shop across the street from his house and established a cooperage on the pier. At this time, most trade with the east coast of Scotland was carried on by local trading vessels and Shearer's schooners, ''Maggie, Janet, Mary Ann'' and ''Minnie'', three of them named after his daughters, were a familiar sight discharging their cargoes at the end of the pier.

20th century to the present

The herring boom passed and by 1918 all Shearer's schooners were gone – three of them lost at sea; the pier became a quiet backwater. It remained thus until the Second World War, when the upper part of the pier store was requisitioned by the Royal Engineers as a base for planning the many army camps and installations required in the area. Later the upper floor was used as a dwelling. Between 1965 and 1971 the property was split between three owners. The main dwelling and part of the pier building became a private lodging house and hostel. In 1977 The Pier Arts Centre Trust purchased the original dwelling and the pier store. Margaret Gardiner had first visited Orkney in the 1950s and converted the old quayside building to house her collection of modern paintings and sculpture. Born into a well-to-do family Gardiner studied at Cambridge University before a brief spell as a teacher. She was an early activist against the fascist movement in the 1930s and in the 1960s organised an international press campaign of public figures against the Vietnam War. The author of several books including a biography of

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

she was also associated with some of the major figures in 20th century literature including

Louis MacNeice Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely a ...

and W. H. Auden. Although never happy to be called a collector – "I hate being called a collector, for I never set out to collect" – Gardiner gathered together, through friendship and astute patronage, a very personal and important collection of art that closely charts the development of British Modernism. Gardiner's interest in art was deeply influenced by her long friendship with the Hepworth and through this friendship she came into contact with many of the principal figures in 20th century British art, including Hepworth's second husband, Ben Nicholson. Throughout the 1930s and 40s Gardiner was a key supporter of the small group of artists who sought sanctuary in St Ives and she was also an early champion of the Cornish painter and seaman

Alfred Wallis Alfred Wallis (18 August 1855 – 29 August 1942) was a British fisherman and artist known for his port landscapes and shipping scenes painted in a naïve style. Having no artistic training, he began painting at the age of 70, using househol ...

. Following the Second World War she encountered and encouraged a new generation of artists, including

Peter Lanyon George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the age ...

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced b ...

Terry Frost Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...

Margaret Mellis Margaret Nairne Mellis (22 January 1914 – 17 March 2009) was a Scotland, Scottish artist, one of the early members and last survivors of the group of modernist artists that gathered in St Ives, Cornwall, St Ives, in Cornwall, in the 1940s. She ...

, John Wells and Roger Hilton, that had been drawn to St Ives by its growing reputation as a centre of innovation. The Collection has grown steadily since 1979 and now contains over 180 works, grouped around the central genre of Modernism, spanning the period from 1929 to the present day. Most recently work by international contemporary artists, including

Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 30 June 1945) is an Irish-born American-based artist working as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and photographer. His work is held in museum collections worldwide and he has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. Moving fro ...

Eva Rothschild Eva Rothschild RA (born 1971) is an Irish artist based in London. Eva Rothschild was born in Dublin, Ireland. She received a BA in Fine Art from the University of Ulster, Belfast (1990–93), and an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, Londo ...

, Martin Boyce, Camilla Løw and Olafur Eliasson, has been acquired.

Architecture

The Pier Arts Centre re-emerged in July 2007 following a two-year period of construction. The original listed buildings and pier, that had housed the office and stores of the

, have been extended by Reiach & Hall Architects who have created a new building at the harbour's edge.

Artists in the collection

* Roger Ackling * Robert Adams * Kenneth Armitage * Adam Barker-Mill *

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Order of the British Empire, CBE (8 June 1912 – 26 January 2004) was one of the foremost British Abstract art, abstract artists, a member of the influential Penwith Society of Arts. Early life Wilhelmina Barns-Graha ...

* Julius Bissier * Sandra Blow * Martin Boyce * Michael Broido *

Stanley Cursiter Stanley Cursiter (29 April 1887 – 22 April 1976) was an Orcadian artist who played an important role in introducing Post-impressionism and Futurism to Scotland. He served as the keeper (1919–1930), then director (1930–1948), of the Nati ...

* Alan Davie * Robyn Denny * Katy Dove * Olafur Eliasson * Ian Hamilton Finlay *

Lesley Foxcroft Lesley Foxcroft (born 1949) is an English sculptor working mostly in MDF, paper, and card. She studied at the Camberwell School of Fine Art during 1970–1974 and has gone on to be part of several solo and group exhibitions. Style Many of he ...

* Mark Francis *

* Naum Gabo * William Gear * Robin Gillanders *

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's w ...

* Roger Hilton *

Callum Innes Callum Innes (born 1962) is a Scottish abstract painter, a former Turner Prize nominee and winner of the Jerwood Painting Prize. He lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. Early life and education Callum Innes was born in Edinburgh. He studied ...

* Alan Johnston * Anish Kapoor *

Bet Low Bet Low (28 December 1924 – 2 December 2007) was a Scottish figurative and landscape painter, notable as one of the Glasgow School#The Glasgow Girls, Glasgow Girls, and as a co-founder of the Clyde Group. Life Born in Gourock, Bet Low g ...

* Camilla Low * Steven MacIver * F E McWilliam *

Garry Fabian Miller Garry Fabian Miller HonFRPS (born 1957) is a British photographic artist. Since the 1986, he has specialised in camera-less photography. His work was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2005, at the Rencontres d'Arles in th ...

Mary Newcomb Mary Newcomb (1893–1966) was an American actress who appeared on the American and British stage and in films. Early life Mary Newcomb was born on August 21, 1893, in North Adams, Massachusetts, the daughter of Josiah Turner Newcomb, and ...

* Ben Nicholson * Simon Nicholson * Eduardo Paolozzi *

Serge Poliakoff Serge Poliakoff (January 8, 1900 – October 12, 1969) was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the 'New' Ecole de Paris (Tachisme). Biography Serge Poliakoff was born in Moscow in 1900, the thirteenth of fourteen children. Hi ...

* Alan Reynolds * Ragna Robertsdottir *

* Ian Scott * William Scott *

* Ross Sinclair *

Margaret Tait Margaret Caroline Tait (11 November 1918 – 16 April 1999) was a Scottish medical doctor, filmmaker and poet. Early life and education Tait was born and raised in Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland, before being sent to ...

* Italo Valenti *

Keith Vaughan John Keith Vaughan (23 August 1912 – 4 November 1977), was a British painter. Biography Born at Selsey in West Sussex, Vaughan attended Christ's Hospital school. He worked in an advertising agency until the World War II, when as an intending ...

* John Wells *

Sylvia Wishart Sylvia Wishart FRSA (11 February 1936 – 4 December 2008) was a Scottish landscape artist. Early life Wishart was born and raised in Stromness, Orkney. She grew up as a neighbor to poet George Mackay Brown. Career Wishart worked in the ...

References

External links

The Pier Arts Centre Website
{{Coord, 58.9630, -3.2982, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Art museums and galleries in Scotland Arts centres in Scotland Museums in Orkney Art museums established in 1979 1979 establishments in Scotland Stromness Arts organisations based in Scotland Contemporary art galleries in Scotland