Tate Liverpool has announced plans for a major revamp backed by £10m in funding from the UK government’s “Levelling Up” money pot, aimed at making the standard of living across different regions more equal. The popular regional gallery is “embarking on an ambitious £25m programme to reimagine and redevelop the gallery complex”, says a statement from Tate, which is seeking an architect for the overhaul. Tate Liverpool, which opened in 1988, was designed by James Stirling who converted the northwest corner of a seven-story warehouse standing on the Royal Albert Dock into the five-storey gallery.
Tate is now seeking tenders from architects for the three-year renovation project. “Tate is looking to appoint a professional team to support this ambition and to bring coherent architectural and engineering response to the needs and expectations of present-day artists and visitors. A successful project will balance these needs with the heritage significance of Jesse Hartley’s 19th-century Grade I listed structure and the remnants of the 1980s Stirling Wilford conversion,” says the tender statement.
A Tate statement adds that the planned works will transform the “usability of the building, increasing the gallery’s visibility on the waterfront and within the Albert Dock, easing the transition between social and gallery environments and offering more engaging routes through the building.”
Asked about raising the extra funding, a Tate spokesman says: “Money has been secured from DCMS [Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport] and the Levelling Up Fund, and we are applying for further funding to supplement this investment.”
Tate Liverpool and National Museums Liverpool were each awarded £10m last year drawn from the £4.8bn Levelling Up fund. The government has pledged to address regional inequality through the fund but a leading think tank, IPPR North, said in a report published today, State of the North 2021/22, that despite its “rhetoric”, government policy has so far, “undermined the levelling up agenda”.
📢 Today we expose the gap between the levelling up rhetoric, and reality 📢
— IPPR North (@IPPRNorth) January 17, 2022
Read State of the North ⤵️https://t.co/zfLZ25LC16 #SOTN21 pic.twitter.com/kRWxAQHHC3
Exhibitions dedicated to artists such as Theaster Gates, Keith Haring and Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho of South Korea have been held at Tate Liverpool. In the summer of 2020, the Mexican artist Aliza Nisenbaum contacted key National Health Service (NHS) staff in the Liverpool area, who agreed to sit for portraits; the works were subsequently shown at Tate Liverpool. The gallery has also participated in the Tackling the Blues mental health programme and developed Home from Home, a development and employability programme for refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants living in Merseyside.
