Maria Balshaw, the director of Tate, will step down from her post in spring 2026, the institution announced today.<\/p>\n
Balshaw joined Tate in 2017 after a successful stint as the director of Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery. She replaced Nicholas Serota, who had held the Tate post for 29 years.<\/p>\n
Balshaw said in a statement: \u201cIt has been an absolute privilege to serve as director of Tate over this last decade and to work with such talented colleagues and artists. With a growing and increasingly diverse audience, and with a brilliant forward plan in place, I feel now is the right time to pass on the baton to a next director who will take the organisation into its next decade of innovation and artistic leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
During her tenure, Balshaw oversaw an eclectic programme, encompassing blockbuster shows such as The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain (Tate Britain, 2019), Yoko Ono (Tate Modern, 2024) and Sargent and Fashion (Tate Britain, 2024). Next year, for her final Tate project, Balshaw will co-curate the largest-ever survey of the artist Tracey Emin at Tate Modern (Tracey Emin: A Second Life, 27 February-31 August).<\/p>\n
A statement from Tate celebrated Balshaw\u2019s work to diversify Tate\u2019s collection and bring greater gender balance and geographical breadth to new acquisitions. It also noted that under her leadership, Tate\u2019s membership reached 150,000, which it describes as the largest arts membership in the world.<\/p>\n
Roland Rudd, the chair of Tate, said in a statement: \u201cMaria has been a trailblazer at Tate. She has never wavered from her core belief\u2014that more people deserve to experience the full richness of art, and more artists deserve to be part of that story. <\/p>\n
As the home of British art and of international modern and contemporary art, Tate today reflects the audiences we serve and the artists who make up our nation. We engage a wider public than ever before through our own galleries, our digital channels, and our projects in other venues across the UK and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funding and redundancies <\/p>\n
Balshaw\u2019s departure comes against a complex backdrop at Tate. Earlier this year The Art Newspaper reported that the organisation was poised to cut 7% of its workforce<\/a> as part of an institution-wide push to reduce costs. Approximately 40 roles were cut via recruitment freezes, targeted restructures and voluntary exits.<\/p>\n This followed the publication on 3 December 2024 of its 2023-2024 annual report and accounts, which stated that for 2024-2025 the museum group would be operating on a deficit budget.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, more than 150 Tate workers walked out earlier this month<\/a> in a dispute over pay and terms and conditions. The Public and Commercial Services Union told The Art Newspaper that its members at Tate report in-work poverty and mental and physical health issues linked to their work.<\/p>\n A Tate spokesperson said at the time: \u201cTate has made careful savings this year in order to invest in staff pay and still achieve a balanced budget…It is only by creating and maintaining a sustainable financial model that we can continue to invest in our staff in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n This year has been turbulent for Tate in other ways too. In July the organisation addressed the decline in footfall<\/a> it has seen in recent years, noting a marked drop in overseas visitors to Tate institutions, especially in people from Europe aged 16 to 24.<\/p>\n While Tate\u2019s own research has shown that attendance by domestic audiences is close to 95% of pre-Covid levels, The Art Newspaper\u2019s annual visitor figures report for 2024 showed that overall attendance was significantly lower than in 2019, a year of record highs. Tate Modern saw 25% fewer visitors than before the Covid-19 pandemic, Tate Britain was down 32% and Tate St Ives had a 37% drop in attendance.<\/p>\n Long-term future<\/p>\n After two decades of broadening the artistic canon, Tate Modern\u2019s most overt collecting and programming priority today is in the field of Indigenous practices. This year, for its 25th anniversary, Tate Modern launched the first major exhibition of the Indigenous Australian artist Emily Kam Kngwarray<\/a>. A Tate source told The Art Newspaper that Balshaw \u201csupported directors to create the programmes implemented\u201d.<\/p>\n