Emma Elizabeth Ashman wrote: 7 March 13:33
History of Tate Liverpool
In the 1980s Alan Bowness, then director of Tate, decided to create a ‘Tate of the North’, as the project became known. This would be a gallery with a distinct identity, dedicated to showing modern art and encouraging a new, younger audience through an active education programme.
A warehouse at the disused Albert Dock in Liverpool was chosen as the site for the new gallery. The dock, once a bustling site crammed with rich cargos from Asia, tea, silk, tobacco and spirits, was derelict. In 1981 the dockyard underwent a rejuvenation, with the Maritime Museum leasing one of the warehouses and restaurants and bars opening.
In 1985, James Stirling was commissioned to design the new Tate Gallery at Liverpool. His designs left the exterior of the brick and stone building built over a colonnade of sturdy Doric columns almost untouched, but transformed the interior into an arrangement of simple, elegant galleries suitable for the display of modern art. It opened to the public in May 1988.
2008 marked the year Liverpoolwas named European Capital of Culture. To celebrate this, in 2007 the gallery hosted the Turner Prize, the first time the competition was held outside London. More than one million people a year visit Tate Liverpool, cementing its position as a venue for major European exhibitions of modern art.
Tate History Overview
The original Tate Gallery, at Millbank in London, opened in 1897 on the site of the former Millbank Penitentiary. Its official name was the National Gallery of British Art, but it became popularly known as the Tate Gallery after its founder Sir Henry Tate. This name was not officially adopted, however, until 1932.
The gallery was designed to house the collection of nineteenth-century British painting and sculpture given to the nation by Sir Henry Tate, together with some British paintings transferred from the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
At that time its responsibilities were specifically for modern British art, defined then as works by artists born after 1790.
In 1917 the gallery was also made responsible for the national collection of international modern art and for British art going back to about 1500.
Tate became wholly independent from the National Gallery in 1955 and in 1992 was accorded corporate status by the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 , which invested all property, rights and liabilities in the Board.
In 2000, the four galleries were re-branded with the opening of the new gallery at Bankside: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives.
About Tate: From Tate
Tate is a public institution owned by, and existing for, the public.
Tate's mission is to increase public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of British, modern and contemporary art through the Collection and an inspiring programme in and well beyond our galleries.
Everything we do – from the Collection we care for, to the exhibitions, displays and programme we present, to how we manage the organisation – is done to maximise value for the public.
We do this by bringing a contemporary perspective to all that we do, and inviting debate and exchange centred on art.
But we need continue to change with the times. Artistic practice is evolving and new technology is changing the way people access information. Participation is ever more important to our visitors’ experience; and everyday life is more global and multicultural than in the past.
In 2007, we looked forward and envisioned how we wanted to evolve. We said we want to become more:
• Open: by being open to new ideas; encouraging debate, exchange and collaboration; and by being more inviting to all people, within and beyond Tate;
• Diverse: by being more reflective of the diversity of Britain and of the world;
• International: connecting the UK to the world and the world to the UK through Tate's programmes and Collection;
• Entrepreneurial: by being stimulating, cutting-edge and ideas-led;
• Sustainable: by demonstrating leadership in response to climate change, being financially sustainable and ensuring scholarship and research are central to Tate's activities.
That is our vision for the future. Tate's Strategy to 2012 focuses in developing these principles within four main areas of activity:
• Art and Ideas
• Audiences
• Improving the Organisation
• Future Development
