Tate Online, sponsored by BT, has enhanced its secure shopping site and now offers online users the chance to buy a wide choice of creative and artistic Christmas presents from the comfort of their own homes. Gifts available online range from annual Tate Membership or exhibition tickets to unique artist-designed products including two newly commissioned limited editions by artists Cornelia Parker and Olafur Eliasson.
A popular gift idea, Tate membership, has the added advantage of lasting throughout the year. Offering a variety of membership options Tate Membership is ideal for anyone interested in art and suitable for people of all ages - individuals, couples, families or groups of friends can enjoy the benefits Tate has to offer. Tate Membership offers free, unlimited entry to the wide range of exhibitions at all four Tate galleries – Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St Ives as well as access to the stylish Members Rooms and Tate Magazine sent direct throughout the year. To find out more or to enrol visit www.tate.org.uk/members, call 020 7887 8752 (Monday to Friday office hours), or visit a Members Desk at Tate Modern or Tate Britain (open seven days a week).
For special gift ideas Tate offers a range of artists’ designed products at Tate Online www.tate.org.uk/shop created from successful partnerships with artists and designers, including Ella Doran, Julian Opie, Paul Smith, and more recently interior designers Maisonette. This Autumn Tate will offer beautiful limited editions by Cornelia Parker and Olafur Eliasson.
Inspired by the artist JMW Turner as well as Venice and the glass blowing traditions of the island of Murano Cornelia Parker has created a simple but exceptionally elegant glass light shade which will be available in a variety of hues. The light shade is hand blown in a Stourbridge glass works which dates back to 1788. Commissioned by Tate Enterprises and Barclays PLC they retail from £20 each.
Olafur Eliasson has developed two objects, uniquely for Tate, which will be available from mid-October and are inspired by his installation The Weather Project for this year’s Unilever Series at Tate Modern. Eliasson’s work considers the boundaries of human perception and the relationship between nature, architecture and technology. He has become known for his installations and sculptures featuring natural materials such as light, steam, water, fire, wind and ice. Eliasson has created a unique object inspired by rain drops. Capturing the ephemeral essence of a drop of rain each object holds a drop of water which is sealed within a clear hand blown glass bead and then suspended within a clear acrylic cube. Each retails at £50. Also available and developed for Tate by Eliasson is an umbrella which reveals a message when wet by the rain. This retails for £22.50.
Tate also offers a great range of other products as inspirational ideas for smaller gifts or ideal stocking stuffers. These products range from Christmas cards to pens, desk and pocket diaries, mugs, notebooks, art books, posters and exhibition tickets. Shopping at Tate Online this year can take the stress out of shopping and give you more time to enjoy the holiday.