A lack of clear vision, low morale, dwindling popularity and financial shortfalls – this may sound like a description of the previous Labour government, but these are also criticisms levelled at the UK’s most powerful arts institution, Tate. Maria Balshaw’s tenure as the first female director of Tate – comprising Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives – lasted nine years and saw as many culture secretaries. One of Sir Keir Starmer’s last acts as prime minister was to approve the appointment of her successor, Jessica Morgan, a former curator at Tate and head of the Dia Art Foundation in New York.
With record-breaking Frida Kahlo and Tracey Emin shows currently at Tate Modern, suggestions that Ms Morgan is inheriting an institution in a state of “existential crisis” seem exaggerated. Tate Britain, often overshadowed by its more fashionable younger sister, pulled in crowds for its Turner & Constable and Lee Miller exhibitions. These blockbusters in the past year also rebut accusations that Ms Balshaw focused on little-known artists instead of bankable stars. Her commitment to diversifying the collection will surely be taken up by Ms Morgan, who also has a strong track record in promoting marginalised artists. Ms Balshaw is leaving on a high.
But after the double blow of Brexit and Covid, Tate has had a turbulent few years. The number of London visitors last year was still more than 2 million below pre-pandemic levels, with the number of 16- to 24-year-olds from Europe nearly halved. Yet Tate Modern remains one of the top 10 most visited museums in the world. The reopening of Tate Liverpool, which closed for refurbishment in 2023, has been delayed until 2027 because of lack of funding. Last year’s redundancies and staff strikes across the galleries showed an institution under pressure.
It is a far cry from when Nicholas Serota spearheaded Tate Modern just over 25 years ago on the crest of Cool Britannia and the rise of the Young British Artists. Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project, which filled the Turbine Hall with a giant sun and entranced over 2 million visitors in 2003, seemed to herald a bright future. But recent Turbine Hall commissions have lost their shine. Even the Turner prize looks tired, with the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones lamenting its retreat “into wilful obscurity” and some critics calling for it to be scrapped.
Looming external challenges include the National Gallery’s recent announcement of plans to ditch its 1900 cut-off, thereby encroaching on Tate Modern’s territory, and the possibility of an end to free museum access in the UK. Both raise fundamental questions for the direction of Tate. Then there is the increasingly problematic issue of funding. Ms Balshaw was right to take a stand against arts donations from fossil fuel companies.
According to a profile in The Gentlewoman, Ms Morgan is not just “one of the great collection-builders of our time”, but is also (though British) “armed with an American unflappability about asking rich people for money”. Gavin Turk, one of the YBAs, compared the role to “the England football manager job now”; the director must be able to support artists and “convince the public with the shows they put on”. Like the new prime minister, Ms Morgan has been hailed as “an agent of change”. How to make lasting change, without alienating core supporters, while inspiring confidence at home and abroad – all when budgets are tight – is the momentous task facing both.
