Heather Davison FRSA FRSPH
5.4K posts
@heatherdavison
Artist, producer, citizen and doer. Honorary Prof, Director Sitting Rooms of Culture, Chair NDUK and the Peace Orchard.
It may have slipped past you (as it was announced shortly before Xmas) that Maria Balshaw has stepped down as director of the Tate. Her tenure has been a miserable experience for all those who value art over quotas. When her replacement is announced (appointed by the PM) it will be more of the same. No reverse gear, no apologies. You'll see more along the lines of the predictions in my book (publ. 2019). Here are the top ones: 1. Collection and exhibition of art will be increasingly driven by the imperative to promote female/minority artists regardless of aesthetic or formal qualities. 4. Space devoted to historical (pre-Modern) art in Tate Britain will be steadily reduced. Presentations of historical art will increasingly disregard art-historical standards. 5. Interpretative texts will reduce discussion of stylistic aspects and will highlight social dimensions of art. 6. The Turner Prize will become an award driven by political ideology. 7. The Tate will be rebranded as a museum of world art. Western and British art will be marginalised in terms of space, funding, exhibitions and acquisitions. Tate is contravening its founding acts and making it a laughing stock, all the time burning British people's money. And no one will stop the activist curators.
