In last year's Report we presented our vision for Tate in 2015, Tate Next Generation. We spoke of a programme that will embrace new voices and ideas, welcome new audiences and make full use of new technology. This Report explains how we are beginning to turn our vision into a reality.
The quality of the Collection, our buildings and our staff all have an impact on our ability to deliver the vision. We need great works of art to present compelling stories that engage and inspire our audiences. We need buildings that provide a sympathetic environment to view art and stimulate new work, in the way that the Turbine Hall and the Duveen Galleries do for contemporary artists. And we need to ensure that our team of staff, volunteers and partners feel supported and valued in order that they can fully contribute to our work.
This has been an outstanding year for acquisitions to the Collection thanks to the generosity and foresight of collectors and artists. A bequest as exceptional as Simon Sainsbury's gift to Tate and the National Gallery is rare; it is unprecedented that it should occur in the same year that we received, with the National Galleries of Scotland, a major donation by Anthony d'Offay
The eighteen paintings that Simon Sainsbury bequeathed to Tate and the National Gallery are of outstanding significance. Tate received thirteen works by artists including Francis Bacon, Balthus, Pierre Bonnard, Lucian Freud, Thomas Gainsborough and Johan Zoffany.
The quality and sheer variety of works will enormously enhance our collections of British and modern art. A special display of the Bequest opened at Tate Britain in summer 2008.
In February 2008 we also announced one of the largest and most imaginative gifts ever made to museums in Britain. The part-gift, part-sale made by Anthony d'Offay, with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund and the Scottish and UK Governments, has enabled the creation of ARTIST ROOMS*, a contemporary art collection held by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland on behalf of the nation. The Collection, comprising 725 works by 25 artists, is envisaged as a series of 50 rooms, each dedicated to an artist of international standing. ARTIST ROOMS will be shown at a wide range of galleries and museums across the country from 2009, transforming the presentation of contemporary art in the UK.
Tate can only prosper when it enjoys the respect and co-operation of artists. There is a long tradition of artist gifts to the Collection and we are deeply grateful to the artists who have donated works this year. Amongst these, Damien Hirst made a generous gift of four important works including an early vitrine, The Acquired Inability to Escape 1991; Louise Bourgeois presented the sculpture Maman 1999, the iconic spider that has become so associated with Tate Modern; while David Hockney kindly gave his largest work to date, a magnificent depiction of the Yorkshire landscape, Bigger Trees near Warter 2007*.
We reach new audiences by sharing the Collection with museums in Britain and abroad. This year 89 works by JMW Turner travelled to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC and then to Dallas Museum of Art for what was the largest and most comprehensive Turner exhibition ever seen in the USA. The tour, which continues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in June 2008 and concludes at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in February 2009, takes works from the Turner Bequest to hundreds of thousands of people and has been planned with close collaboration between the curators of the partner museums and Tate.
The new collection display at Tate Liverpool, DLA Piper Series: The Twentieth Century: How it looked & how it felt, celebrates Liverpool's status as European Capital of Culture. The display includes many great works of the twentieth century including Auguste Rodin's The Kiss 1901–4 and Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman 1937. The Turner Prize was presented at Tate Liverpool in the autumn, taking this high-profile exhibition to audiences in the north for the first time. The event was a fitting prelude to the Capital of Culture celebrations which, in May 2008, included the twentieth anniversary of Tate Liverpool.
At Tate St Ives a focus on community initiatives and building closer relations with neighbours has brought about a range of exciting events, programmes and forums for school children and teachers, and also local families.
Tate Online lies at the centre of our plans to take Tate to a more international and diverse audience. The site continues to attract huge numbers of visitors and unique, innovative content, including the monthly TateShots podcasts and new initiatives, such as a collaboration with Flickr, ensure that we are reaching audiences of more than sixteen million a year and growing our online reputation.
In other projects beyond our walls we seek to reach much smaller groups with special needs. Looking for Change, supported by UBS, is the first programme to explore how skills learned in the course of developing understanding of the visual arts can be transferred to other areas of learning. In a three-year programme we are working with four primary schools in deprived areas in London. Children who rarely get the same teacher from one term to another are now part of weekly sessions, provided by Tate, which we hope will help these young people gain confidence and skills which can be transferred across all their work.
We continue to lay the groundwork for plans that will improve and enhance the experience for our visitors. Plans drawn up by Herzog & de Meuron to transform Tate Modern with an extension to the south side were boosted when we announced both a generous ‘start-up' donation of £5 million from one of our then Trustees, John Studzinski, and, in December, a grant of £50 million from the Government. The challenge of raising £215 million (at 2012 prices) in an uncertain economic environment is obvious, but the range of new spaces in this landmark building will not just alleviate the overcrowding at Tate Modern, but will enable us to totally transform the way we programme, the work we commission and display, and the way we welcome and engage our audiences in the 21st century.
Following the appointment of Caruso St John Architects, much work has been undertaken on a masterplan for Tate Britain. An initial phase of works which meets our key objectives of dealing with the pre-war fabric of the galleries and inadequate visitor facilities, and making improvements to visitor circulation is being developed in greater detail with the aim of completing this work by 2012.
Working with the National Portrait Gallery and other partners, we are developing plans to transform our existing Store in Southwark into a world-class centre for the care and management of museum collections. We are currently raising funds for a new building, by Grimshaw Architects, on the existing site. This will contain tailor-made facilities for conserving and storing collections, as well as spaces that will allow innovative programmes for the public and provide facilities for training a new generation of conservators.
One of our key priorities over the last year has been to develop management and leadership skills within the organisation to help foster future talent for Tate and for the wider sector. We have achieved this by developing our own programmes such as Tate Manager and through participation in schemes such as the Clore Leadership Programme.
We welcomed many new members of staff including in senior roles Mark Osterfield and Martin Clark as Executive Director and Artistic Director respectively at Tate St Ives, Julian Bird as Chief Operating Officer, Sue Cambridge as Finance Director and appointed Caroline Collier as Director, Tate National and Cheryl Richardson as Director of Human Resources. Susan Daniel-McElroy, Director of Tate St Ives retired after seven very successful years in which she advanced the gallery's exhibitionprogramme, and Simon Groom left Tate Liverpool to become Director of Modern and Contemporary Art for the National Galleries of Scotland. Dennis Hammond retired as Porter for the Millbank site after 23 years of dedicated service, and Stephen Dunn moved to the National Gallery after 30 years as a Registrar with Tate.
This year we welcomed Monisha Shah, Lord Browne and Franck Petitgas as new Trustees and look forward to welcoming Professor David Ekserdjian as National Gallery Liaison Trustee to replace Jon Snow. Jon, like our other Trustees, has shown enormous commitment, energy and passion during his term as Trustee, and we also thank John Studzinski, Victoria Barnsley, Jennifer Latto and Melanie Clore for their contribution as they retire from the Board, having respectively given particular support to Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Tate Enterprises, Tate Liverpool, and the Collection.
It was with great sadness that we received the news of the death of Sir Norman Reid in December 2007 shortly after the death of his wife, Jean. Norman joined Tate in 1946 and was Director from 1964 to 1979. During this period he laid the foundations for the Tate as we know it today, creating the British and Modern Departments, developing Conservation and founding the Tate Archive of British Art and the Modern Print Collection. His friendships with artists led to major gifts by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Ben Nicholson and Mark Rothko.
Former Trustee and architect Sir Colin St John Wilson, and the American artist RB Kitaj, who lived in London for nearly 40 years and coined the term ‘School of London', also died during the year. Tragically, the young artist Angus Fairhurst took his own life in March. His work was some of the most engaging, witty and perceptive of his generation and he was also an enormously influential friend to many British artists.
We were delighted that the service of John Studzinski and former Trustee and Chair of Tate Liverpool Council, Paula Ridley, was recognised by their appointments as CBE in the New Year Honours 2008.
Paul Myners, Chair, Tate Trustees
Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate
*These works will be formally accessioned into the Collection in the next financial year.
Paul Myners (Chair)
Helen Alexander
The Lord Browne of Madingley
Melanie Clore
Sir Howard Davies
Jeremy Deller
Anish Kapoor, CBE
Patricia Lankester
Franck Petitgas
Fiona Rae
Monisha Shah
Jon Snow
