The vibrancy of our Collection displays and the popular success of exhibitions such as Lucian Freud, Turner and Venice and the annual Turner Prize, among many others, have enabled us to establish Tate Britain's reputation as the home of British art, old and new. The challenge for the future is to develop the ways in which we reveal and explore British visual art and culture. We must also respond imaginatively to opportunities such as the arrival of Chelsea College of Art and Design at its new Millbank home, next door to the gallery.

Tate Britain is more than a gallery. One of our tasks is to bring the fruits of new scholarship to bear on our presentation and interpretation of art for a wide public. We uncover the historical and cultural contexts in which British art is created, sometimes challenging orthodox thinking, and try to view art of all ages with a fresh and contemporary eye. The quality of the visitor's visual experience remains of paramount importance, in both our displays and our exhibitions.

Gainsborough1 was a contemporary look at a celebrated historic British artist which, through bold, modern interpretation showed his work in a new light, while Pre-Raphaelite Vision2 reflected our ambition to reconsider the familiar. Constable to Delacroix3, which included the work of non-British artists such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault alongside work of the same period by JMW Turner and John Constable, explored Anglo-French cultural interchange at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Turner and Venice4, Tate Britain's second most popular exhibition ever, focused on the remarkable paintings, watercolours and drawings created by Turner in response to one of the world's most magical cities.

Whether we are engaged with the past or the present, what counts in the end is the impact of the art itself. Lucian Freud5, which attracted more visitors than any other Tate Britain exhibition since the gallery's opening in 2000, significantly increased public understanding of the artist and, through him, of modern figurative painting. Bridget Riley6 was also an illuminating and authoritative survey of one of Britain's greatest living artists. Anya Gallaccio rose to the challenge of the Duveen Galleries with a striking installation, and an exhibition of the work of Turner Prize winner Wolfgang Tillmans7 provided a timely opportunity to reassess his work.

Among a number of contemporary survey shows, the second Tate Triennial8 was an overview of current artistic practice in Britain, featuring both established and emerging artists, while the annual Turner Prize9 exhibition continued to showcase the work of artists under fifty who have made an outstanding contribution to British art. In addition In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida10, with new work by Angus Fairhurst, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas, was a provocative exhibition of recent work by three mutually influential British artists.

Tate Britain also has a crucial role to play in nurturing new talent and developing new audiences. In a series of smaller exhibitions each year, Art Now introduces less-established artists and has built a reputation as an important platform for the latest contemporary art. During the last two years this series has been supplemented with Art Now Lightbox, a programme featuring recent developments in film and video. The openings of Art Now often coincide with Late at Tate Britain, a new and already very successful initiative of Friday evening openings at Tate Britain aimed at encouraging a wider audience.

One of our priorities over the last two years has been to bring the Collection into sharper focus. British Art Week11, a new annual event instituted in 2003, helps us to do just this by promoting the newly installed BP British Art Displays and exploring the meaning of British visual culture in a series of high profile lectures and events.

Tate Britain's Collection displays range from Tudor portraits to contemporary multimedia installations and are arranged both chronologically and thematically in order to explore multiple strands of British art. So, for example, Making British History surveys literary and history painting from 1770 to around 1900, while Bomberg & the Borough Polytechnic focuses on a close-knit group of artists over a few years in the 1940s. A Century of Artists' Film in Britain12 was an ambitious display of artists' films made since the 1890s, shown in four separate programmes over a year, and looking at the long history behind contemporary artists' use of film and video.

Monographic displays, such as those dedicated to John Constable and George Stubbs, highlight works by seminal British artists to great effect. Sometimes individual contemporary works, such as Ian Breakwell's haunting video of dancers in the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea13, have the authority to occupy an entire room. Meanwhile the Clore Gallery is devoted to showing and exploring works from the Turner Bequest, one of Tate's most important and famous assets. Together with our dynamic exhibition programme and continuing scholarship, our regularly-changing displays tell the rich, complex and exhilarating story of British art from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Footnotes

1. Gainsborough, 24 October 2002 - 19 January 2003. Sole sponsor: The British Land Company PLC
2. Pre-Raphaelite Vision: Truth to Nature, 12 February - 3 May 2004. With support from The Ahmanson Foundation, The Starr Foundation and Mrs Coral Samuel CBE
3. Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics, 5 February - 11 May 2003 Supported by John Lyon's Charity
4. Turner and Venice, 9 October 2003 - 11 January 2004. Sponsored by Barclays PLC
5. Lucian Freud, 20 June - 15 September 2002. Sponsored by UBS Warburg
6. Bridget Riley, 26 June - 28 September 2003. Supported by Tate Members
7. Wolfgang Tillmans: if one thing matters, everything matters, 6 June - 14 September 2003. Supported by Tate International Council. Wolfgang Tillmans was Turner Prize winner in 2000
8. Days Like These: Tate Triennial of Contemporary British Art 2003, 26 February - 26 May 2003. In partnership with Volkswagen for Phaeton and Touareg
9. For full details, see www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize. Sponsored by Channel 4 from 1991 to 2003
10. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, 3 March - 31 May 2004. Supported by Tate Members. Media partner The Daily Telegraph
11. British Art Week, 15-21 September 2003. Supported by BP
12. A Century of Artists' Films in Britain, 19 May 2003 - 16 April 2004. An Illuminations production for Tate, with the support of Central St Martins, the AHRB Centre for British Film & Television Studies, LUX and the British Film Institute
13. Ian Breakwell (born 1943) The Other Side 2002. Purchased 2003

Tate Britain plays a crucial role in nurturing new talent and developing new audiences