Following the opening of Tate Modern and Tate Britain in 2000, Tate has consolidated and built on this unique achievement, presenting the Collection and exhibitions to large and new audiences. As well as adjusting to unprecedented change, we continue to develop and innovate, as a group of four galleries linked together within a single organisation.

One exciting area of growth has been Tate Online - tate.org.uk. Now the UK's most popular art website, it has won two BAFTAs for online content and for innovation over the last two years. In a move that reflects this development, the full Tate Biennial Report is this year published online. The printed publication presents a summary of a remarkable two years.

A highlight of the last biennium was the launch of the new Tate Boat in May 2003. Shuttling visitors along the Thames between Tate Britain and Tate Modern, it is a reminder of how important connections have been in defining Tate's success.

Tate is a British institution with an international outlook, and two appointments from Europe - of Vicente Todolí as Director of Tate Modern in April 2003 and of Jan Debbaut as Director of Collection in September 2003 - are enabling us to develop our links abroad, bringing fresh perspectives to our programme. With the appointments of Alex Beard as Deputy Director and a new Director of Communications, Will Gompertz, we have a restructured and reinvigorated senior management team, ensuring that we can confidently face the future.

Tate receives £28 million a year from Grant-in-Aid. This is less than similar institutions, despite the scope and breadth of our work across the UK and internationally. We have worked very hard to supplement this funding with self-generated income, and a National Audit Report of national museums showed that Tate earned twice as much as any other institution in 2002-03. We are enormously grateful to our many individual and corporate supporters. However, Tate remains vulnerable to small shifts in the economic climate and in visitor numbers.

Over the past two decades, government has effectively abandoned financial support for new acquisitions for public collections in the UK. It is therefore imperative that the Trustees should secure support from other sources, so that we may plan for the long term. Our priorities for the next biennium are to achieve a more stable financial position and to find ways to enhance our Collection, the root from which all our programmes grow.

The Trustees are grateful to everyone, throughout Tate and our partner organisations, whose imagination and perseverance have generated so much for our audiences. First, it should be acknowledged that without the extraordinary leadership and energy of Tate's Director, Nicholas Serota, the changes that so many have worked to bring about could not have been achieved. We must also thank David Verey, Trustee since 1992 and Chairman from July 1998 to March 2004. His outstanding contribution during an exceptional period for Tate was duly recognised by the award of a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2004. We would also like to pay tribute to the contributions of several senior staff who left Tate during the biennium. We were sorry to lose Sandy Nairne, Director of National Programmes 1995-2002, whom we congratulate on his appointment as Director of the National Portrait Gallery; Jeremy Lewison, Director of Collections and a curator at Tate since 1983, who left in 2002 to pursue independent research; and Jim France, Director of Collection and Research Services 1995-2003, who has also moved on to freelance activity in his retirement. Finally, it is with great regret that we report the death of John Anderson, Head of Frame Conservation, who died unexpectedly at the end of 2003. He joined Tate in 1973 and single-handedly established Frame Conservation as a centre of excellence. The loss of his expertise and knowledge is inestimable, but he leaves a tangible legacy.

It is thanks to the hard work and commitment of staff throughout Tate that our opportunities are still growing, and we look forward with optimism. That is why this year's report sets our achievements in the context of our hopes for the future.

• Paul Myners
• Chairman

• Professor Dawn Ades
• Helen Alexander
• Victoria Barnsley
• Sir Howard Davies
• Professor Jennifer Latto
• Chris Ofili
• Julian Opie
• Jon Snow
• John Studzinski
• Gillian Wearing

As at 31 March 2004

Tate is a British institution with an international outlook