Surveyed
The Penwith Society of Arts formed in February 1949, when the abstract artists showing in the Crypt — Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Peter Lanyon among them — broke away from the St Ives Society of Artists; Bernard Leach and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham were founders too. Since 1961 the society has occupied a converted pilchard-packing factory on Back Road West: three public galleries, the Porthmeor Printmakers Workshop, ten artists' studios, a sculpture courtyard, a shop and the archive, all run by the society's charity. Members' exhibitions rotate through the year alongside invited artists from Cornwall and beyond, and entry is free, six days a week.