Tate ranks second most popular arts organization in world
- September 08, 2011 15:10
Tate, Britain's family of four art galleries, attracted a record number of visitors in 2010-11 with 7.4 million people visiting its various locations, and 19 million unique users hitting its website during the same period.
The Tate says the increased attendance makes it the most popular arts organization in the world, after the Louvre in Paris.
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art drew 5.68 million people in Fiscal Year 2010.
In the Tate's annual report, the organization said that the last financial year has been “one of the most successful years ever.”
In 2010-11, 62 per cent of Tate’s funding came from private not public sources. Self-generated income increased by 15 per cent over the course of five years.
Among the year's highlights, 287 works were acquired for the Tate Collection via purchase or bequest, including a major work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Double Portrait) 1991, a joint purchase with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.
Major exhibitons were also a draw for visitors. Gauguin: Maker of Myth at Tate Modern, which presented the artist in a fascinating new light, drew the third highest attendance for an exhibition in Tate’s history.
New audiences were developed through initiatives such as Young Tate, a space for young people to discover and discuss art online.
The first phase of the new development of Tate Modern – massive oil tanks transformed into a new art space - will open in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The second phase of the development may not be completed until 2016. So far, the Tate has raised about 70 per cent of the total capital costs of £215 million.
Lord Browne, chairman of the Tate's Trustees, said: “This is an important moment. It starts with the Olympics but will build momentum beyond. Once completed, the new Tate Modern will represent the most important new building for a national arts organisation in the UK since the creation of the British Library in 1998. Tate Modern is already the most popular modern art museum in the world – our aim is to make it better still.”
