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Established in 1969, the Sloop Studios stand near the harbour on the site of the old St Ives fish cellar. Traditional local materials have been used to create a unique setting for the workshops and selling areas. The founding ethos of the studios was to gather together a creative community selling articles of a really high standard in an environment designed specifically for them… The essential conditions for any tenancy is that any items for sale must be created or designed by the artists and makers themselves.

Our Studios

Find out more about our artists and makers, their studios, work and contact details.

The Sloop Studios 1969
The Manchester Guardian

St Ives, the Beatnik Paradise, the Mecca of the footloose who descend on the town in the summer and make regular headlines when it is alleged they forage in dustbins, sleep out on the quay and hold sex orgies on the beach. But even beatniks, it seems, are getting scarce and in June the two television teams which came down to film the reported beatnik invasion found just 16.

It is hoped that the Sloop Studios will help break down the barrier between those who feel that anyone who is not strictly conventional is to be deplored and those artists and craftsmen who put St Ives originally on the map. Unlike the beatniks, it would appear to be unique.