Over the years, the Collection in particular has benefited from the generosity of many individual donors, and the past year has been exceptional.
Simon Sainsbury and Anthony d’Offay’s passion and vision for the visual arts has resulted in collections of national significance. Their generosity in presenting these to the nation will transform our public displays in the UK in the way that Tate’s original bequest of paintings by Henry Tate did over 100 years ago. The d’Offay gift was also made possible with the generous support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund and the Scottish and UK Governments.
Our capacity to build the Collection was also significantly enhanced this year by a number of legacies from those whose wish was to help us acquire works of art.
The exhibition of Peter Doig’s work at Tate Britain, held from February to May 2008, was made possible with the help of the Peter Doig Exhibition Supporters Group. Other individual donors, together with our special acquisition groups, have also helped Tate secure important works of art for the collection. These included The Chapman Family Collection 2002 by Jake and Dinos Chapman, and other works by artists including Andreas Gursky and Keith Tyson.
Finally, a £5 million commitment from former Trustee and philanthropist John Studzinski towards Transforming Tate Modern, together with a number of other generous gifts from individual benefactors, contributed greatly to us raising the £10 million needed to fund detailed design work for the project.
Tate is increasingly reliant on the generosity of individuals. Many of the people who support us financially and in the form of loans of art to the gallery are non-domiciled. We lobbied hard to ensure that the government was aware of this support before imposing new taxes in the budget round, and were relieved that large taxes weren’t imposed on the import of art works into the country. We also fully support tax incentives, similar to those in place in the USA and Australia, which will encourage collectors to give works during their lifetimes.
