International partnerships

Globalisation has changed the ways in which art is produced, presented and collected, and the terms by which it is understood. As a collecting institution with a contemporary perspective, Tate is responding not only to the vision and activity of individual artists, but also to the expanding audience for art – the demand for co-production and participation, and access to knowledge. Tate presents and collects international art, with a particular commitment to date to collecting art from Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

New forms of cultural dialogue and international exchange are developing, involving artists, institutions and audiences, within and between cities, regions, and continents. Contemporary critical perspectives are prompting a theoretical and practical reassessment of the relationships and interdependencies within this network of global cultural exchange. In this context, Tate is developing collaborative programmes and initiatives with a range of partners, connecting our staff and collection to programmes, audiences, institutions and individuals in many different parts of the world.

Tate aims to:

• Engage audiences in art and dialogue through partnerships and projects, and by exploiting the potential of online content and participation through social media
• Reflect and contribute to new understandings of historic, modern and contemporary art – its contexts, trajectories and histories – through research, use of the collection, temporary exhibitions and public programmes
• Develop strategic partnerships with museums, galleries and art institutions for mutual benefit and exchange

Dialogue and exchange

Knowledge, research and sharing information are central to Tate’s international partnerships. These involve:

• Curatorial exchange: Tate curators meet with artists, curators and researchers from international organisations large and small, to undertake curatorial research and build networks
• Sharing expertise: Tate staff, including those with expertise in learning, conservation and media, actively participate in exchange programmes, research, international conferences and symposia
• Hosting international dialogue: Tate regularly convenes conferences and events, such as:
  o    Contemporary Art in the Middle East, an international conference (2009)
  o    Curating in Africa symposium (2010)
  o    Worlds Together, a conference in September 2012 exploring the value of art in people’s lives from Shakespeare to the digital realm
• turbinegeneration: Tate’s groundbreaking educational project linking schools, galleries and artists through contemporary art
• Artists’ Perspectives: the Tate blog provides a platform for artists based outside the UK to share their thoughts about works in Tate’s collection, in English and another language
• Films programmes: Tate Modern’s Mapping Subjectivity season (2011), produced in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and curator Rasha Salti of Arte East, brought together an extensive programme of artists’ cinema from the Arab world since 1960

Exhibition collaborations and loans

Tate works with international partners to  develop, curate and tour exhibitions and runs an extensive international loans programme. Recent examples include:

• Gerhard Richter: Panorama, developed by Tate Modern in partnership with the Nationalgalerie (Berlin) and Centre Pompidou (Paris) 2011-12
• William Blake and British Visionary Art, a collaborative project with the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow) in partnership with the British Council, November 2011 – February 2012
• Nam June Paik, developed by Tate Liverpool and FACT (Liverpool) in partnership with Museum Kunstpalace (Düsseldorf), 2010-11, supported by Korea Foundation
• The Art of Seeing Nature: Masterpieces from Tate Britain, organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Oman and shown at Sayyid Faisal bin Ali Museum (Muscat), 2010-11
• Tate Modern’s level 2 series, developed through curatorial exchange and partnership with international visual art organisations and each project is presented both at Tate Modern and by our partners. Recent collaborations have been with Darat Al Funun (Amman), SALT (Istanbul), Centre for Contemporary Art (Lagos) and Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (Mexico City)
• Tate lends work from the collection to institutions all over the world

International collaboration in Tate research

Tate’s research mission is to produce new knowledge and understandings and to encourage and support publishable research. The subject areas tackled by Tate researchers range from the fine arts, through art history and other humanities discipline, to pedagogic research, public and cultural policy, as well as material and conservation sciences.We aspire to international significance and seek international partnerships and collaborations wherever we can.

Tate Research Centres

Each Tate Research Centre includes a significant international dimension – examples include:

• Comparative studies on artist colonies outside the UK
• Work undertaken on the ‘Black Atlantic’
• Symposia and conferences organised by the the research centres, British Romantic Art and Surrealism and its Legacies include contributions from non-UK based speakers.

The future development of Tate’s international research strategy will see the establishment of an ambitious new Research Centre concentrating on modern and contemporary art in the Asia-Pacific region.

Conservation science

Most of the compelling questions of conservation science can only be answered through international collaborations:

• Tate’s recent work on anoxic framing has attracted researchers from Canada and Australia to the research team
• Tate is a partners in an international EU-funded project on air purity
• Matters in Media Art, with a strong focus on contemporary time-based media, is an example of international partnership on a specific aspect of art and museum practice.

Contact us

For more information about Tate’s international activity, please contact Ted McDonald-Toone: ted.mcdonald-toone@tate.org.uk