Pier Arts Centre

The Pier Arts Centre was established in 1979 to provide a home for an important collection of British art donated to ‘be held in trust for Orkney’ by the author, peace activist and philanthropist Margaret Gardiner (1904 – 2005). 

Gardiner was a crucial figure in the development of British Modernist art in the middle years of the 20th century and was an early champion of the work of some of the greatest artists of the period, including Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

The Collection, though small in scale, encompasses paintings and sculptures of exceptional quality by the key artists who were instrumental in importing and extending the ideas of the European avant-garde to Britain. 

The grouping of works exemplifies the definition and refinement of that particularly British manifestation of Modernism and also contains fine examples of work by Patrick Heron, Sir Terry Frost, Margaret Mellis, Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Alan Davie, Alfred Wallis and Naum Gabo among others.