Jessica Morgan has been confirmed as the new director of Tate, marking her return to the arts organisation where she worked as a curator for more than a decade, at a critical juncture in its history.<\/p>\n
Morgan, the clear frontrunner in the race to replace Maria Balshaw, who left this spring after nine years in charge<\/a>, is currently based in New York, where she has led the Dia Art Foundation since 2015.<\/p>\n According to Dia\u2019s tax filings<\/a>, Morgan was paid $814,000 in 2025 (more than \u00a3600,000), substantially more than the \u00a3220,000-\u00a3225,000 Balshaw earned at Tate.<\/p>\n Tate\u2019s chair, Roland Rudd, said he had paid Morgan the most he could \u201cunder the constrictions he faced\u201d, confirming she was accepting a \u201cvery big pay cut\u201d to take up the role.<\/p>\n Described as \u201can agent of change\u201d by Tate, Morgan will need to guide the organisation through a difficult financial landscape, raise poor staff morale and grapple with fluctuating visitor numbers.<\/p>\n Rudd told the Guardian that Morgan was going to \u201cquestion a lot of things\u201d at the organisation. \u201cShe\u2019s an agent of change, but she takes people with her,\u201d he said. \u201cAt Dia she transformed that museum, but she\u2019s done it in a way where she\u2019s carried people with her and I really like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Morgan said it was an immense privilege to take over at Tate, which she called the \u201cworld\u2019s foremost institution for international modern and contemporary art and for British art\u201d.<\/p>\n She said her time as curator at Tate \u201cdeeply informed\u201d her work at Dia, where she placed \u201cartists and our public at the centre of what we do\u201d.<\/p>\n Morgan added: \u201cI look forward to this pivotal next stage at Tate and, most importantly, continuing and advancing the incredible work of Tate\u2019s committed and talented team in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n She takes over an organisation that is bruised after a difficult few years. Finances were hit hard during the pandemic, leading to rounds of redundancies, restructuring and \u201cculture war\u201d battles that, according to one senior staffer, left staff morale \u201con the floor\u201d.<\/p>\n Tate staff strike outside Tate Britain in London in November 2025. Photograph: Alicia Canter\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Lately, there has been a more positive story, with the success of Balshaw\u2019s Tracey Emin retrospective, the record-breaking ticket sales that accompanied the Frida Kahlo<\/a> exhibition, and critical admiration for the Ana Mendieta show at Tate Modern.<\/p>\n But Tate is unlike other British arts institutions, with four sites spread around the country that can make it financially exposed, and the feeling in some quarters that it has not found a new direction since the departure of Nicholas Serota, who created Tate Modern and was in post for 28 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many will welcome Morgan\u2019s appointment. As the search for a successor to Balshaw began, her name was on most people\u2019s lips, partly because of her connections to Tate, but also because of her reputation as a talented curator and tireless fundraiser.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Art Weekly<\/p>\n Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Frances Morris, the former Tate Modern<\/a> director, described the 57-year-old as a \u201chugely hardworking individual with a very strong sense of what\u2019s right\u201d.<\/p>\n Morgan studied art history at Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute of Art<\/a>, before establishing a reputation for developing talent from the Middle East, south Asia, South Korea and Latin America.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat drives me on is finding the artists we\u2019re not talking or writing about, that we\u2019re not showing,\u201d she once said.<\/p>\n Tate Modern\u2019s Frida Kahlo exhibition, overseen by its departing director Maria Balshaw, had record-breaking ticket sales. Photograph: Guy Bell\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s fizzing with so many ideas,\u201d Rudd added. \u201cI think within the committee, there were a few people who said she\u2019s been incredibly hyped, is she really this good? And the answer is, yes, she really is.\u201d<\/p>\n She is also arguably the coolest director Tate has ever had, dressing in designers such as Rabih Kayrouz, and being profiled in New York Magazine<\/a> and The Gentlewoman<\/a>.<\/p>\n Morgan\u2019s appointment was one of the last tasks Keir Starmer completed as prime minister. She will start in January, with the interim director and former boss of Tate Modern, Karin Hindsbo, taking charge until then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Morgan has been confirmed as the new director of Tate, marking her return to the arts organisation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-818880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}