EASTER

The state school Easter Holidays in Cornwall start at the end of March, so you’ll be wanting our dedicated guide full of all sorts of family fun (the Easter holidays run from 28 March to 14 April in Cornwall).

ART IN CORNWALL

In Penzance, it’s your last chance to check out Storm Warning, a collaboration between Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, and Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, which seeks to raise awareness of the impact of the climate crisis on coastal communities in Mount’s Bay, and South Essex (until April).

Falmouth Art Gallery is showing Chosen Terrain, featuring new abstract paintings by Cornwall-based artists Neil Canning and Mark Surridge, who have been taking walks together for over 20 years, giving them both a unique platform for sharing their views on art and the changing landscape. Airing their concerns about the environment and climate change, filmmaker Rachael Jones joined their walks and the dialogue and presents her own perspective in a new film commissioned for the exhibition. Rachael has also worked alongside, Splanna, the gallery’s Earth Justice Art Youth Group, on their first film which was created during a recent residency at Loveland (ends 13 April).

Catch The Cornish Paintings of Martina Thomas at Penlee House in Penzance. In celebration of the centenary year of the artist’s birth and to mark her dedication to painting the landscapes, harbours and fishermen of Cornwall, Martina Thomas’s family have chosen a selection of her Cornish artworks and rarely-exhibited examples of her later work (ends 20 April).

Press Photography of Outi Pieski, Tate St Ives, 2024

The UK’s first large-scale exhibition of work by Finland born artist Outi Pieski is over at the Tate St Ives (ends 6 May) and will include figurative landscapes, photographs and prints alongside sculptural works and a new installation created especially during a residency at Porthmeor Studios in January 2024. Pieski is a Sámi visual artist whose practice is deeply connected to land. Working primarily with painting and installation, Pieski has gained recognition for her work which explores the spiritual relationship between humans and their environment and raises vital questions around traditional knowledge and Indigenous people’s rights. The exhibition at Tate St Ives presents Pieski’s figurative landscapes, photographs and prints alongside sculptural works.

Kurt Jackson The Cornish Seal Exhibition Jackson Foundation Gallery

Kurt Jackson’s The Cornish Seal, is on in St Just (until 10 August). A normal, almost everyday experience for anyone who spends time on the Cornish coast, seals seem to pop up whenever we look out to sea; are they looking for us? “I decided to spend the last few years dedicating as much time as possible watching, studying and trying to understand them – their form and movement, their haunts and habits and in turn create a body of work inspired by them.” – Kurt Jackson.

For her latest show, GO WHERE YOU FEEL GOOD, Emma Digerud-White presents a compelling series of paintings that delve into the profound need to seek out spaces and experiences that evoke joy, love, and a sense of safety. In a world fraught with indescribable horrors. Find her solo exhibition at Circle Contemporary, Hawksfield, Nr Wadebridge starting 30 March – 4 May 2024.

WELLBEING AND OUTSIDE

Flowers on display at Cornwall Garden Society Spring Flower Show, Wadebridge, Cornwall UK

The Cornwall Garden Society Spring Flower Show is at the Royal Cornwall Showground, Wadebridge (6 – 7 April) for an ever-more exuberant celebration of Cornwall’s early Spring with the largest horticultural show outside London, our ‘Chelsea of the South West’.

Plenty of races to get your teeth into this month, including Par Duathlon | The Hare, Cornish Tri Series (6 April) followed by The KVK, (13 April) is a unique challenge; a Kilometre of Vert in Kernow! Two laps of a specifically designed route to reach the magic number of 1000m of ascent. 15-miles total distance of inland hills and coastal running with big climbs, and big downhills.

The end of April sees leg two of the Saints and Smugglers Challenge (27 April – the others are/were 8 June, 7 Sept and 9 March) is the second of four unique self-navigation stages on four different dates culminating in the legendary 100mile Saints & Smugglers Challenge. All four events are supported, self-navigation exercises with manned checkpoints with fluid and sustenance along the route. All runners will receive a Saints & Smugglers stage medal, those completing the entire challenge will receive a unique 100 Mile challenge medal!

And the Bodmin Beast Marathon (28 April) where you can see the sights of Bodmin on this multi terrain marathon, including Bodmin Beacon near the half way point. The route also takes you through the Parishes of Lanhydrock, Lanivet, Nanstallon and Cardinham where church volunteers will offer food and drink.

runner does up her trainers which have pink laces

MUSIC, COMEDY, FILM, STAGE AND THEATRE

Head to Tehidy Woods, North Cliffs to catch the Muddy-Award winning Rogue Theatre ‘Wild Awake’ (until 9 April), which is the most gorgeous way to celebrate the arrival of spring here in Cornwall! Wild Awake is an immersive performance of magical stories – including new ones for 2024. The Wild Spring Hare has emerged with a brand-new adventure; pass through the bluebell woodland; into a story world of wonder as the wild awakes.

Wild Awake Rogue Theatre Tehidy Woods Easter children watch the bunny in the woods Cornwall UK

True Foxes are a female duo with beautiful harmonies, like our very own Cornish First Aid Kit. It’s going to be a chilled evening of entertainment, food and selection of drinks at this super cool music venue just outside of Fowey, Bar Silo, Golant (12 April).

Sprout Spoken presents ‘You are Here’, in four towns with four casts, all culminating in four ‘one-night-only’ outdoor experiences – the first two were in March and then the cast heads to Looe (5 April) and Bude (19 April).

Choral and orchestral music more your thing? Put St. Endellion Easter Festival in your diary now (ends 7 April) and Wadebridge Choral Society will be performing Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in St Endellion church on 20 April.

Rattler Fest 2024, Healeys Cider Farm (19 – 20 April) is the annual adults-only music festival – headliners for 2023 included Goldie Lookin Chain, Freshly Squeezed, Penny Eyes and Stone Roots, 2024 announced soon.

Bring on the classics! WNO’s Opera Favourites delivers a host of crowd-pleasing arias and orchestral numbers from the likes of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Bizet. A great introduction to opera, it’s at Theatre Royal Plymouth for one night only on 30 Apr.

LITERARY, POETRY AND SPOKEN WORD

After a run of sold out shows up and down the UK, Hollie McNish is back with a brand new book, Lobster and other things I’m learning to love. In Lobster, Hollie brings her much-loved style to questions of friendship, flags and newborns, clocks, cocks and volvos, shining a ridiculous and beautifully poetic lens upon all those things we have been taught to hate, and which we might just learn to love again – a beautiful live reading by Hollie is in Bodmin (4 April).

The Roseland Festival (19 – 28 April) is back, a celebration of cultural events to appeal across the board including folk and jazz, history and art, films and photography, choirs and quartets, walks and talks.

FOODIE

Porthleven Food Festival, Porthleven, Cornwall UK

The Porthleven Food Festival, Porthleven (26 – 28 April) brings people together to enjoy eats and beats around the stunning harbour of Porthleven with a national and international chef’s theatre, food stalls, street food, music by day and night and entertainment for all.

CORNISH CULTURE

Trevithick Day, Camborne, (27 April) is part of Cornwall’s rich heritage and is day that the whole family will enjoy. The day celebrates Camborne town’s renowned industrial history. Join the town in their festivities admiring the magnificent steam engines, based on the life of local engineer Richard Trevithick who invented steam engines for the local and international mining industry. There will be dancing in the streets, a variety of music, an abundance of stalls and a fairground to entertain you throughout the day.

FURTHER AFIELD

Royal Mews gold carriage © Royal Collection Trust / His Majesty King Charles III 2024 — © Royal Collection Trust / His Majesty King Charles III 2024

Royal lustre, glittering coaches and a horse or two. Love the pomp and ceremony of royal events? Head straight for the Royal Mews – a working royal stables responsible for the King’s road travel. A stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, you can get up close to the fairytale-like Gold State Coach used in coronations since 1821 and the Rolls Royce Phantom VI used in royal weddings. You can even climb aboard a reproduction landau for that essential photo opp, tack up a (wooden) pony, and ‘ooh and aah’ over the other carriages and shiny bits of kit. A great day out for all ages. Tickets: adults from £17, Kids (5-17yrs) from £8.50 and under 5s free.

BOOK AHEAD FOR

For the first time, five of Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals are being shown together at the Tate St Ives from 25 May 2024 – 5 January 2025. The Seagram murals were donated by Rothko the Tate in 1969 after being completed by the artist in his studio in New York in 1958, where they were a initially painted as a commission for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building. Despite completing the work – and a second and then third version- to the space specification of the commission, after a visit to Europe and Cornwall in 1959 Rothko decided that the restaurant was not the right place for the installation and it was never completed. The works move away from his original brighter colours and are instead more red and black, inspired by visits to Florence. An exciting opportunity to see multiple Rothko’s in Cornwall!

Beatriz Milhazes, O Diamante, 2002. Contemporary Art Collection "la Caixa" Foundation. Photo Vicente de Mello. © Beatriz Milhazes Studio
Tate St Ives

Also opening 25 May, Tate St Ives presents Maresias, a major exhibition of the work of Brazilian abstract artist, Beatriz Milhazes (until 29 September). The exhibition celebrates the evolution of her approach over four decades, while also highlighting nature as an enduring and increasingly important theme in her work. Turner Contemporary, who first staged Maresias, have collaborated with Tate St Ives to reima

Awesome April: 25+ things to do near you this month in Cornwall

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