Tate’s Annual Report for 2015/16 reveals today how the gallery is taking great art to global audiences through its digital channels, ambitious partnerships and exhibitions.
Tate is one of the leading galleries worldwide on Twitter with 2.6 million followers, a figure which is growing at a rate of 100,000 each month. Tate’s Instagram account has 667,000 followers, the second largest audience in Europe on this platform, and there are now 912,000 followers on Facebook, an increase of 186,000 on last year. Our Pinterest following is over one million, up over 238,000. There were 12.8 million visitors to Tate’s refreshed website.
Our lending programme took works to 112 UK venues and 94 international venues with a total of 1,264 works lent this year. Three exhibitions specially created from the Tate collection toured internationally attracting 250,000 visitors across venues in Rome, Mexico City and Sao Paulo. Tate hosted a major conference in Beijing, Museum Dialogues, supported by the British Council, as part of the 2015 UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange.
This was a year in which intense preparation for the opening of the new Tate Modern reached its height, allowing us to open one of the most important public buildings in London in the 21st century. 800 works by artists from over fifty countries are being shown in the new spaces reflecting the radical international evolution of Tate’s collection in recent years.
In 2015/6, Tate acquired 332 works by UK artists and 676 works by artists from abroad with a combined value of £14.4 million. It was an outstanding year for the acquisition of works by women artists and of photography.
Exhibitions of women artists featured prominently with monographic shows by Marlene Dumas, Sonia Delaunay and Agnes Martin at Tate Modern and Barbara Hepworth at Tate Britain.
Tate Liverpool had its busiest year since 2012 with over 617,000 visitors, a highlight attraction being Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots. Tate St Ives marked the Centenary of the Cornwall-based artist Bryan Wynter in Images Moving Out Onto Space.
The Annual Report also shows how Tate’s unique partnerships are bringing great art to all areas of the UK. ARTIST ROOMS, the Plus Tate network, and the British Art Network have all deepened our relationships across the United Kingdom.
In 2015 we expanded the Plus Tate network to 35 cultural institutions including Tate. Circuit, for people aged 15 to 25 at six Plus Tate partner institutions, supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, has involved 113,000 young people and Circuit eventsplayed an integral part of the opening weekend at the Whitworth in Manchester in summer 2015. Since 2009, ARTIST ROOMS has presented 147 displays and exhibitions at 77 museums and galleries. In a new partnership, William Stott of Oldham’s Le Passeur (The Ferry) 1882 will tour to three UK-partner galleries:Gallery Oldham, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery, thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Art Fund. The tour of John Constable’s six-footer Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831, continued to Ipswich and Wales in 2015/6 and went on display from 17 September at the Salisbury Museum. At Glasgow’s Tramway in 2015, Turner Prize brought in almost 75,000 visitors, a record number for a show at this contemporary art space and we are delighted that Turner Prize 2017 will be in Hull as part of the UK City of Culture celebrations.
One of the biggest attractions at Tate Britain outside the exhibition programme was IK Prize 2015 winner Tate Sensorium which drew huge audiences to experience the collection using all five senses through new digital technologies. The Archives & Access project, supported by Heritage Lottery Fund, concluded this year giving online visitors access to 52,000 digitised items.
For press information please contact Ruth Findlay in Tate Press Office on 020 7887 8730 or 4941.
Email pressoffice@tate.org.uk. For high-resolution images visit tate.org.uk/press