Audience development is at the heart of our aims and we work strategically across the year to attract new audiences who want to increase their knowledge, understanding and appreciation of art, and encourage more regular repeat attendance from existing visitors.
Tate Britain enjoyed its most successful year ever in 2005 with a 23% increase in visitors from the previous year. Over 380,000 people came to see Turner Whistler Monet, and the evening performance event Late at Tate Britain has seen audiences soar up to 5,000 people a night. Tate Britain has established an annual programme of events for young people called BP Saturdays attracting significant numbers of local families with young children, in collaboration with Sure Start South Westminster. These events have also attracted a more culturally diverse audience of people in their teens. Audience numbers have also increased to the Collection following the introduction of the innovative Create your own Collection campaign.
Tate Modern attracted record numbers of people to the Edward Hopper and Frida Kahlo exhibitions, while the Unilever Series of Turbine Hall commissions continue to attract huge numbers of people from all walks of life to the annual free display. Raw Canvas, Tate Modern's youth project, has built on its success as a peer-led project where young people set their own agenda to find out more about the Tate Collection and many more adult community groups have enjoyed the artist-led, tailor-made introductions to art with the Art into Life programme.
Tate Liverpool held its second most successful exhibition ever, with 35,000 people coming to see Summer of Love in 2005. Tate Liverpool has been involved in a unique partnership with Rolls-Royce, with first year apprentices taking part in a programme to deliver an innovative approach to creative thinking. Since July 2005, young people who gather in the city centre have been working with Tate Liverpool to develop activities for their peers and Single in the City, a programme of events for singles, offers a Sunday morning brunch and a lively introductory tour of the special exhibitions.
Tate St Ives has introduced Super Sundays in partnership with local schools and the Sure Start agency. Aimed at local families living in the deprived wards of St Ives, Super Sundays offers free admission alongside a wide range of free creative activities to help them enjoy all that Tate St Ives has to offer. November 2004 saw the launch of a new audio-description for visually impaired visitors to the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. Students from both Helston Community College and the West of England School and College for Children with Little or No Sight worked with Tate St Ives, to research and write this resource which was then piloted by groups of visually impaired visitors and is now available to help visually impaired visitors get the most out of their visit.
Tate Online has seen an enormous 56% increase in traffic in the last two years and is still consistently rated the most popular UK visual arts site by Hitwise. There are now over 18,000 users signed up for Level 1 of the Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art course. In addition, i-Map, Tate's site for visually impaired people, has been updated to include six new works and won the JODI award 2006 for web accessibility. 2005 also saw the launch of the Nahnou-Together project, enabling young people in Damascus and London to get to know each other through art.
| Tate Britain | 1,316,455 |
| Tate Modern | 4,147,549 |
| Tate Liverpool | 591,313 |
| Tate St Ives | 237,188 |
| Total | 6,292,505 |
| Tate Britain | 1,623,359 |
| Tate Modern | 3,958,026 |
| Tate Liverpool | 606,853 |
| Tate St Ives | 224,225 |
| Total | 6,412,463 |
| 2004–2005 | 5,525,433 |
| 2005–2006 | 8,405,983 |
| Total | 13,931,416 |
