When we launched Tate in its new form in 2000 we hoped that with a new gallery on Bankside, a renovated gallery at Millbank, a new, more inviting identity and a wider range of programmes we could make a greater contribution to public engagement with the visual arts. In the following six years we have trebled our audience. Over the period April 2006 to March 2007 the galleries were visited by over 7.7 million people and more than 11 million people visited Tate Online. In 2006 Tate Modern was the second most-visited destination for tourists in the UK, while our off-site programmes reached millions more around the world through touring shows and education events.
Much has changed since 2000 and continues to change. For Tate to contribute the same levels of public value in the future we must also evolve. Advances in technology are offering us more creative opportunities to reach audiences and present art in new ways. Contemporary art is becoming more diverse and ambitious, and showing and caring for our Collection is correspondingly more complex. Furthermore, our audiences want to participate more than ever before.
We live in a multicultural world where the exchange of ideas and information is easily available and where a multiplicity of voices can be more readily heard, but also in a world where people increasingly value authenticity and scholarship. The challenge for Tate and other museums and galleries is that we need to respond to this changing environment while also becoming increasingly self-reliant financially.
This is the backdrop to Tate’s new vision, Tate Next Generation. While this report has much to celebrate, it is the shaping of this vision which has occupied a great deal of the last year and which is crucial to our future. In the autumn of 2006 we invited a wide range of people to a conference and debate at Tate and we followed this with many smaller workshops and consultations both internally and externally.
By 2015 we aim to make three significant changes in our work. We will present a wider range of views across all our programmes, from major exhibitions and Collection displays to education programmes, gallery interpretation and online content. By implementing our Diversity Strategy and achieving its milestones, we will bring diversity into everything we do, from programmes and the people we work with to the very way we think. And we will increase the extent of our work beyond the walls of our buildings, growing our international programmes, our presence on the web and our education work.
We will do this by continuing to work closely with artists and staff, many experts in their field, who provide the creativity, determination and ambition for which Tate is renowned. And we will use our other great asset, the Collection, as a vehicle for change. In a challenging environment we will find ways to grow and develop the Collection because with the right acquisitions and displays, we can present a more diverse range of art, offer many more viewpoints and share our work more widely with audiences around the world.
The Trustees are grateful to those, throughout Tate and beyond, who help us deliver our ambitions. We thank Julian Opie for his valuable service as Artist Trustee from October 2001 until October 2006, and welcome the artist Jeremy Deller who joined us as a Trustee in January 2007. In the same month Helen Alexander was reappointed a Trustee for a further four years.
We were saddened by the deaths of a number of artists represented in the Collection, including the distinguished Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay (d. March 2006) and two artists especially associated with St Ives, Sandra Blow (d. August 2006) and Bryan Pearce (d. January 2007).
A number of staff have moved on or retired during this period including Duncan Ackery, Rosey Blackmore, Emma Dexter, Meg Duff, Liz Kay, Tom Learner, Sean Rainbird, Jacqueline Ridge, Rita Rippon, Sarah Tinsley and Sian Williams, each of whom made a remarkable contribution to Tate’s success in their respective areas.
It is with great sadness that we have to report the untimely death of Simon Grant, our Head of Information Systems. Simon was an important member of our senior staff for almost 12 years, during which time he was responsible for transforming our IT infrastructure. He is much missed.
Paul Myners
Chair, Tate Trustees
