This report records many achievements. However, four areas should be highlighted. Our work in developing the Collection has continued against the odds and has been much boosted by our success in securing JMW Turner’s The Blue Rigi, Sunrise 1842 for the nation. Our international partnerships, education programmes and touring shows have enabled us to develop the work we do beyond our gallery walls and to reach out to many more people. We are already embracing our new status as an Independent Research Organisation recognised by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Strengthened by the creation of a new team, we have embarked on a number of important new research projects. And finally we have enjoyed working on a number of initiatives designed to attract new audiences, notably UBS Openings: The Long Weekend, Tate Tracks and Tate Shots, all of which have encouraged people to visit and have strengthened Tate’s reputation for innovative cross-cultural programming and work in the field of performance.
Saving Turner’s The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, valued at £5.8 million, was no small undertaking. Over the past decade museums and galleries in the UK have seen many works, significant to British culture and heritage, go to foreign collections, which are not always publicly accessible. Building on a contribution from the Collection Endowment Fund established in 2005, we launched, in collaboration with The Art Fund which gave £500,000, the first public appeal in support of an acquisition since the late 1980s and were astounded by the public support for the campaign. We were also supported by Tate Members and a most generous contribution from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
The effects of an increasingly strong art market coupled with limited funds means we have to find different and new ways of developing the Collection. We are doing all we can to improve our chances of acquiring significant works, including gifts from artists with whom we are working, acquiring more works by emerging artists and sharing ownership of works with other museums, as we have done this year with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami. We are reliant upon the help of others, from charities to individuals. This year we acquired important works by Kenneth Martin and Kurt Schwitters via the in-lieu-of-inheritance scheme. We welcome the efforts being made to extend this system to lifetime giving in the UK, as we know that public collections in the United States and Australia benefit significantly from such incentives.
An important area of growth for our Collection in recent years has been works from Latin America. Our well-established Latin American Acquisitions Committee, advised by a specialist curator, has helped us acquire many significant works in 2006–7. This year we have also added the Asia-Pacific region to our areas for future growth, reflecting more fully the breadth of contemporary art practice for our audiences.
The international scope of our work has grown dramatically. Twelve Tateoriginated exhibitions travelled in 2006–7 to venues in Europe, the United States and New Zealand and 668 works from the Tate Collection travelled as part of our loans programme. Britain and British art were represented through the loan of important works by JMW Turner, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Henry Moore. The principle of sharing the Tate Collection lies at the heart of this programme and our collaboration with partners across the globe ensures much greater awareness of British culture and achievement. From our continuing collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museums, to a recent collaboration with the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, we hope to bring our work to many more people and offer interesting programmes to audiences throughout Britain and across the world.
Tate has always undertaken ground-breaking research and incorporated world-class scholarship into its programme. However with our new status as an Independent Research Organisation we have renewed impetus. In conservation we began the Tate AXA Art Modern Paints Project which investigates the conservation of acrylics. We were awarded grants by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to embark on research into The Sublime Object and to participate in a Land Art network. We also received financial support for Tate Encounters: Britishness and Visual Culture, a new three-year partnership with London South Bank University which we hope will provide us with vital information about how second-generation migrant families engage with our displays at Tate Britain. Such information will inform our future practice.
We have also taken important steps to attract new audiences. Three programmes have done this in a creative and occasionally dramatic way. UBS Openings: The Long Weekend was a four-day programme of live performances, major art commissions and activities for families and young people. Over the last bank holiday weekend in May 2006, 110,000 visitors came to Tate Modern; over 38,000 of them had never visited Tate before.
In September 2006 we launched Tate Tracks, a project to bring art and music together and encourage young people with an interest in music to explore our Collection. The Chemical Brothers and Roll Deep are just some of the names from the music industry who have written new pieces of music inspired by the art on display. And in February 2007 we launched Tate Shots, a monthly video podcast on Tate Online which quickly shot to the top of the iTunes visual arts chart. The content is wide-ranging but features glimpses into new exhibitions, interviews with artists and footage of live performances.
It is these kind of developments which have encouraged us to draw up plans for a dramatic new building at Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron, a scheme which was granted planning permission in March 2007. Our international work grows, and new audiences bring us the challenge of presenting our Collection in new and different ways. We need to respond by creating new spaces and through the way we work. With a clear vision for the future and the possibility of new space at Tate Modern, we are in a strong position to lead the way in attracting and guiding the engagement of future generations with the visual arts.
Nicholas Serota
Director, Tate
