The English provost marshal, Anthony Kingston, came to St Ives and invited the portreeve, John Payne, to lunch at an inn.
The Tate St Ives displayed an exhibition called As Dark as Light, with art by Yuko Shiraishi, Garry Fabian Miller and local schoolchildren, to celebrate the event.
[30] A. K. Hamilton Jenkin describes how the St Ives fisherman strictly observed Sunday as a day of rest.
Recently, a class of Victorian fishing boat unique to St Ives, known as a "jumbo," has been replicated by boatbuilder Jonny Nance to celebrate the town's maritime heritage.
The lifeboat John and Sara Eliza Stych was launched at 3 o'clock to search for a ship reported in trouble off Cape Cornwall.
[43] St Ives has an oceanic climate and has some of the mildest winters and warmest summers in Britain and Northern Europe.
[49] Around 540,000 day trippers and 220,000 staying tourists visit St Ives every year, with the tourism industry accounting for around 2,800 jobs in the area.
[49] Like in the rest of Cornwall, tourism has been criticised for bringing about problems in seasonal work and affordable housing in St Ives.
[50][51] In 2016, St Ives residents voted to ban second-home owners from buying new build housing, with 83% in favour.
In 2019, the Financial Times reported that average house price was £351,800, saying that the new build policy had failed to stem the number of second homes.
[53] St Ives also faces a shortage of rentals; in 2021, while there were over 1,000 properties in the town available for short-term holiday let, there was only one long-term house available to rent.
[55][57] The council is responsible for providing grant funding to local organisations, public footpaths, bus shelters, beach patrols, traffic control and allotments.
The Council deals with roads, street lighting, highways, social services, children and family care, schools and public libraries.
[64] In 1408 the townsmen attempted to get a papal bull to authorise the consecration of their church and cemetery, but they did not achieve this, so they continued without the rights of baptism or burial.
In 1939, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo settled in St Ives, attracted by its beauty.
[citation needed] In 1948, the abstract faction broke away to form the Penwith Society of Artists led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.
"[79] The programme explored the lives and works of the key figures and their contributions in establishing St Ives as a major centre of British art from the 1920s onwards.
[82] The St Ives Museum has exhibits illustrating local history and culture, including mining, fishing, agriculture and domestic life.
The ceremony involves the Mayor of St Ives, a customs officer, and a vicar accompanied by two widows and ten girls who should be the "daughters of fishermen, tinners, or seamen".
It is one of the longest running and widest ranging Festivals of the Arts in the UK lasting for fifteen days and includes music (folk, jazz, rock, classical & world), poetry, film, talks and books.
[89] Early-20th-century figures in St Ives appear in Virginia Woolf's reflections contained in "A Sketch of the Past", from Moments of Being, "...
[92] The Ulysses Moore series of books, written by Pierdomenico Baccalario are based in the hypothetical village of Kilmore Cove near Zennor and St Ives.
Open air performances are held in Norway Square and the St Ives Arts Club, as well as talks, workshops and live music.
[94] The final scenes with Alec Guinness were meant to have occurred in a local church but a unusually strong storm a few days earlier had damaged the building rendering it unsuitable for filming.
In 1989, a public television crew from Alaska shot scenes for a docudrama about American artist Sydney Mortimer Laurence (1865-1940), who was a member of the St. Ives Arts Club in the late 19th century.
"Laurence of Alaska," which won two regional Emmy Awards, was produced by KAKM, Alaska Public Television, and later aired on public stations across the U.S.[95] The Discovery Travel and Living programme Beach Café, featuring Australian chef Michael Smith, was filmed in St Ives.
Before 2019, the park & ride facility for visitors to St Ives ran from Lelant Saltings railway station.
After development works at St Erth station in 2019 to improve transport links, the park and ride was moved there.
First Kernow buses also connect St Ives to nearby towns and villages, such as Zennor, Penzance and Truro.
St Ives is twinned with Camaret-sur-Mer (Breton: Kameled) in Brittany, France and has friendship agreements with Laguna Beach, California and Mashiko, Tochigi, Japan.