The new Tate Modern – an architectural and financial wonder
If you go down to the Tate today, you’re sure of a big surprise. And no, I’m not referring to the Matisse cut-outs currently adorning the walls of the old power station. I’m talking about the new Tate Modern – a brick and concrete palace reaching for the expansive skies of Bankside.
Sir Nicholas Serota has been showing people round the new £215m development, designed, like the original, by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, and opening to the public in two years’ time. I tagged along for one of these behind-the-scenes tours, and was impressed by the ambition of the project.
The extension (a word which doesn’t quite do it justice) to the existing Tate Modern will be nearly 65 metres high when the final brick is in place. Eleven levels will take it up to the top of the famous chimney of Giles Gilbert Scott’s power station.
So it will give the Tate ample room for growth – essential because the gallery attracts around five million visitors a year, more than double the number originally anticipated. But quite apart from the architectural elegance of the thing, what really impressed me is the fact the Tate’s top bods have been able to raise almost all the cash they need.
They’ve managed to wring £50m out of the government, and £7m from the Greater London Authority. The remainder is coming from the private sector, and, according to the Tate, represents one of the largest cultural fundraising campaigns ever launched.
“We’ve raised more money than any other arts project,” he tells me, as we take a stroll round the magnificent Matisse. But although Sir Nicholas and his team have raised 85 per cent of the capital costs so far, that last 15 per cent is proving tough.
“We’re moving out of recession. Some people are beginning to make money again but I don’t think people have absolute confidence…People are more likely to give when they see clear waters ahead of them,” he says.
That’s why, in his view, government backing is so crucial, because public subsidy for galleries like the Tate “is about pump-priming” – stimulating private individuals to give generously. But with public spending squeezed for years to come, he’s realistic about the way to the new culture secretary’s heart, talking up the economic contribution of the arts.
“They’re part of the creative industries. Creative industries are amongst those that are growing fastest. They are the skills we have in abundance.”
The actress Joanna Lumley, also on the tour, is slightly less diplomatic perhaps. She knows how tough fund-raising is, having tapped the rich and famous for their spare pounds and pence to build a “garden bridge” across the Thames.
“At the moment money is the God. In the old days, art was the God,” she tells me. “Without the arts we are machines.” Amen to that.
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