The Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, Orkney was established in 1979 to provide a home for an important collection of British fine art donated by the author, peace activist and philanthropist Margaret Gardiner (1904–2005). The Collection includes a significant group of works by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis, and she supported the first and subsequent generation of St Ives. Contemporary art is represented by the likes of Sean Scully, Anish Kapoor, Jim Lambie and Olafur Eliasson. The Collection also includes local artists including Bet Low, Sylvia Wishart and Stanley Cursiter. Gardiner first visited Orkney in the 1950s and later converted the old quayside building to house her collection of modern paintings and sculpture.