At the heart of Tate is the Collection - the art that we hold in trust for visitors, now and in the future. Comprising the national collection of British art from 1500 and the national collection of international modern and contemporary art from 1900, it is a magnificent resource for all four Tate galleries, as well as for those museums and galleries internationally, nationally and regionally that borrow works from it.

We share our Collection with as wide an audience as possible. Since it is not a static entity, we must develop and add to it, consolidating it historically and tracking contemporary art as it evolves. Some works that might be affordable today could be so highly valued in ten years' time as to be out of our reach. The quality of our Collection tomorrow depends on our actions today.

The last biennium was a period of change, following the departure of Director of Collections, Jeremy Lewison, and Director of Collection and Research Services, Jim France. With the appointment of a new post of Director of Collection in 2003 we have created a new, dedicated, Collection Division to coordinate Tate's collecting policy and every activity relating to the Collection. Under the leadership of Jan Debbaut, the new division oversees four linked departments. The Collection Curators advise on acquisitions, collaborate on the display of the Collection and undertake research. Collection Management is in charge of the registering, logistics, handling and storage of works of art, and Tate's distinguished Conservation Department cares for them. The fourth arm is the Library and Archive, acknowledged today as a central resource for the Tate Collection.

Since April 2002 we have acquired major works by Peter Blake, Lothar Baumgarten, David Cox, Luciano Fabro, William Hogarth, Anish Kapoor, Robert Motherwell, Shirin Neshat, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, Dorothea Tanning and Rachel Whiteread, among many others1. This list is a reminder of the breadth of Tate's collecting remit. But behind each acquisition is a story that reflects the many means that help us build the Collection. We buy some works outright, while others are bequeathed or donated - as was the case with 400 prints given in early 2004 by Kenneth E Tyler, the eminent American printmaker2. Some are accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax. In 2002, two outstanding works, by Alexander Calder and Jean Hélion, came to us in this way, allocated from the estate of John and Myfanwy Piper3. Tate Members, private donors and Patrons all gave significant support. In 2003, Tate Members assisted the purchase of an installation by Juan Muñoz4, the American Fund for the Tate Gallery acquired Carl Andre's Diamondback5, and the Latin American Acquisitions Committee presented the video installation 15,000,000 Parachutes by Sebastian Diaz Morales6.

Often, single works are funded from various sources. Georges Braque's late painting The Billiard Table, which greatly strengthens Tate's representation of the artist, was paid for with the generous assistance of a range of supporters7. We have also started to share ownership with museums abroad, a new method of collecting that allowed us in 2002 to purchase Bill Viola's superb Five Angels for the Millennium, shown at Tate Modern in 20038.

Certainly, we only achieve major purchases with financial help from others. In the spring of 2002, thanks to the efforts of our supporters, we managed to purchase Sir Anthony van Dyck's Portrait of Sir William Killigrew9. A year on, swift action from the National Art Collections Fund (the Art Fund) and the support of our Members secured its companion picture, Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew10, when it came up for sale in New York. The result is that now, after a century and a half apart, husband and wife are reunited in the Tate Collection. And, in late 2002, following careful work over a long period, we announced that two paintings by Turner, stolen from an exhibition in Frankfurt in 1994, had been recovered11. They went on display again at Tate Britain in January 2003. Sometimes, sadly, we are unable to obtain important works. Our attempts to purchase one of the most outstanding eighteenth-century British pictures, Portrait of Omai by Joshua Reynolds, have not yet been successful.

While continuing to try to strengthen established areas of the Collection, we are extending the geographical range in which we collect to Latin America, while in continental Europe we are beginning to focus particularly on major artists there who are little known in Britain. We are also collecting a wider range of media, including photography, film and video, and digital media. These extensions have been aided by the appointment of Cuauhtémoc Medina as Associate Curator of Latin American Art in 2002 and by the earlier appointment of Gregor Muir as Kramlich Curator of Contemporary Art12.

Museums are centres of knowledge to be developed and shared, and two new Tate research forums have been set up to identify, define and implement the areas of research we wish to pursue. Today, partnerships with academic institutions are featuring more strongly in our research programmes. Leading the way is an ambitious programme of cross-disciplinary research into Surrealism13 with the Arts and Humanities Research Board and the Universities of Essex and Manchester.

The internet gives us the opportunity to offer our knowledge to a wider public. A new Tate Research section14 on Tate's website details both our research services and projects ranging across many areas, from conservation and conservation science to art history, museum studies and interpretation. Tate Research also includes Tate Papers, scholarly articles relating to Tate's Collection and programmes. In addition, we have been building a databank of short texts around the Collection so that lively, reliable information on 2,000 works can be accessed online.

We apply our knowledge at the most practical level in handling the Collection. Collection Management combines the departments of Registrars, Art Handling and Photography, taking responsibility for movement, transportation, installation, insurance, documentation and access to works in store. Our registrars organise some 5,000 object movements per month, liaising with lenders and borrowers all over the world. Our Art Handling department is renowned for its expertise in solving the complex technical problems of installing, transporting and packing contemporary art, often working directly with the artist. Photography provides services throughout Tate, using the most up to date technology. The new Collection Division enables all curatorial, conservation and management procedures to be streamlined.

In Conservation, we have conducted technical investigations and treatments on works by artists from Sir Anthony van Dyck to Anselm Kiefer. Substantial projects, often in collaboration with other institutions, are also underway. They include the research of oxygen-free framing15, which allows more freedom in the display of sensitive material normally shown at low light levels. Our research into modern paints has expanded to evaluating methods for cleaning synthetic materials.

Informed by our work on the Collection, we have published books on the painting techniques of William Blake and the Pre-Raphaelites16. We are contributing technical research to Collection catalogues of Tudor and Stuart paintings17 and are collaborating on establishing guidelines for conserving video, audio and computer installations18.

The Library and Archive includes personal papers, exhibition catalogues and artists' bookworks. The opening of the Hyman Kreitman Research Centre19 has encouraged more visitors to use this fascinating and unique resource, but making the Library and Archive more accessible remains a priority. We completed conversion of the catalogues for online access in 2004. Meanwhile, the catalogue of Tate's own historic records is now available on the National Archives' website. In September 2003, three Archive Journeys20 were launched on Tate Online. Packed with information, they reveal aspects of Tate history, the archives of Bloomsbury and the papers of the American art critic Barbara Reise.

The Archive's first ever bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund secured the exceptional John and Myfanwy Piper archive21, while John Piper's sketchbooks came to us accepted by the Treasury in lieu of Inheritance Tax. Thanks to the support of Members and donors, we have received papers including those of Kenneth Armitage and Bryan Robertson, and the records of the Lefèvre Gallery. A major highlight was the acquisition of the Barry Joule Collection23 of materials connected to Francis Bacon.

Overall, the creation of a unified Collection Division will now enable us to improve our approach to acquisitions and collect more proactively. Streamlined procedures will ensure that decisions are made faster, adding efficiency and giving us a better negotiating position in the market.

Footnotes

1. Details of these acquisitions may be found online at www.tate.org.uk/about/tatereport. Find out about all works in the Collection at www.tate.org.uk/collection
2. Most of these Kenneth E Tyler prints were made after 1980, and the most recent were published in 2001. They were created with many of the late twentieth century's most important international artists
3. Alexander Calder (1898-1976) Standing Mobile 1937, and Jean Hélion (1904-1987) Abstract Composition 1934
4. Juan Muñoz (1953-2001) Towards the Corner 1998
5. Carl Andre (born 1935) Diamondback 1998
6. Sebastian Diaz Morales (born 1975) 15,000,000 Parachutes 2001
7. Georges Braque (1882-1963) The Billiard Table 1945. Acquired in 2003 with the help of the National Art Collections Fund, the Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler Bequest, Tate Members and Dr VJ Daniel Bequest
8. Bill Viola (born 1951) Five Angels for the Millennium 2001. Joint purchase in 2002 by Tate, the Whitney Museum, New York, and the Pompidou Centre, Paris. Tate share of acquisition supported by Lynn Forester de Rothschild
9. Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) Portrait of Sir William Killigrew 1638. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax with additional payment (General Funds) made with assistance from the Patrons of British Art, Christopher Ondaatje and the National Art Collections Fund, 2002
10. Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew 1638. Purchased in 2003 with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund and Tate Members and the bequest of Alice Cooper Creed
11. JMW Turner (1775-1851) Shade and Darkness - the Evening of the Deluge exhibited 1843, and Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory) - the Morning after the Deluge - Moses writing the Book of Genesis exhibited 1843
12. This post is funded by the Kramlich Foundation
13. The University of Essex, the University of Manchester, and Tate are partners in the AHRB Research Centre for Studies of Surrealism and its Legacies, set up in June 2002
14. www.tate.org.uk/research
15. Supported by the Leverhulme Trust
16. William Blake, the Painter at Work edited by Joyce Townsend, Tate Publishing, 2003 Pre-Raphaelite Painting Techniques, 1848-56, Joyce Townsend, Jacqueline Ridge and Stephen Hackney, Tate Publishing, 2004
17. Tudor and Stuart Paintings and Drawings: Works in the Tate Collection, supported by the Getty Grant Program (2003-05)
18. Media Matters: Collaborating Towards the Care of Time-based Media Works of Art, a joint project with New Art Trust, Tate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, supported by New Art Trust (pilot project 2003-04)
19. The Hyman Kreitman Research Centre at Tate Britain opened to readers in May 2002
20. www.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys
21. The personal papers of John and Myfanwy Piper, 1920s-1990s, purchased with assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Tate Members and private donors, 2004
22. Barry Joule Collection of material relating to Francis Bacon's studio at 7 Reece Mews, London. The Collection includes some 900 pages of source material, over 50 pages from the 'X-Album', photographs of Francis Bacon and friends, and books, catalogues, and other publications, c1950s-1990s. Presented by Barry Joule, 2004

We are extending the geographical range and the media in which we collect