Maria Balshaw to step down as director of Tate after nine years | Culture
Maria Balshaw will step down as director of the Tate in 2026 after a difficult nine-year tenure in which she guided the organization through the Covid-19 pandemic and had to deal with fluctuating attendance figures and financial instability.
Balshaw, who joined as director in June 2017 after an illustrious spell as leader of Whitworth in Manchester, said it had been a privilege to serve as director but it was now time to move on.
He said: “With a growing and increasingly diverse audience and a bright forward plan in place, I think now is the right time to hand over the mantle to the next director. “My biggest passion has always been working closely with artists and so it’s a great fit for this occasion. Tracey Emin’s exhibition “It will be my last project at the Tate.”
Balshaw was described as a “pioneer” by Tate president Roland Rudd, who said he “never wavered from his fundamental belief that more people deserve to experience the full richness of art and more artists deserve to be part of that story.”
Balshaw has the inevitable task of taking over from long-serving director Nicholas Serota, who founded Tate Modern 25 years ago and is now chairman of Arts Council England.
He has overseen many successful projects, including Steve McQueen’s Year 3 project, where he took “mass school portraits” of 76,000 seven and eight-year-olds from across London.
Group shows, including Women in Rebellion and Life Among the Islands, featured previously marginalized artists; This was something Balshaw was proud of; There were notable showings for Leigh Bowery and Emily Kam Kngwarray.
The director also criticized arts organizations receiving sponsorship from fossil fuel companies. Balshaw said he had “taken a position where the public thought it was inappropriate”, adding that Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the British museum, which has a £50m deal with BP, would have to deal with “public dismay” over the sponsorship. Tate withdrew its agreement with BP in 2016.
There have also been some high-profile scandals, including the Guardian revealing in 2022 that the organization had paid six-figure damages to two artists who made allegations of discrimination, victimization and harassment.
Balshaw takes over a large, sprawling institution with four sites across the UK and rising operating costs severely impacted by the pandemic.
There were further redundancies in 2020 as the Tate sought to save £4.8 million during the Covid-19 lockdown. Earlier this year, Tate announced it would lay off 7% of its workforce in a bid to reduce the funding shortfall resulting from the pandemic.
Staff represented by the PCS union were recently on strike over pay and working conditions, and the strike may continue until 2026.
Figures released in March showed Tate Modern and Tate Britain had suffered a 27% drop in attendance since 2019; but, as Balshaw said in a letter to the Guardian, 2019 was the Tate’s most successful year yet in terms of attendance.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Tate Modern welcomed more than 76,000 people over its birthday weekend; He hopes insider participation could signal a recovery in 2025.
Expanding the National Gallery and changing its collection policy to include modern art was also seen as a threat to the Tate by some senior figures, but Balshaw welcomed the move.
Tate said the search for a new leader will begin soon. The Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport and the Tate board of trustees will oversee the process once the prime minister signs the appointment.
Balshaw said she was looking forward to working on the Tracey Emin exhibition in early 2026 and would focus on working with artists and her writing.
