The new development of Tate Modern has been awarded £5 million from the Wolfson Foundation, a charity which gives grants to excellence in the fields of the arts and the humanities, science, medicine and disability.
The new development will create a spectacular new building adjoining Tate Modern to the south. It will beBritain’s most important new building for culture since the creation of the British Library in 1998. It will increase Tate Modern’s size by 60% adding approximately 21,000 square metres of new space.
The new building’s two central concrete cores are now complete and will house the lifts, stairs and services. The higher, at ten-storeys, reaches the full height of the new building, standing at 64 metres. The cores sit above the Tanks and are now being surrounded by a lattice of columns, which will continue to rise throughout the year to form the perimeter of the new building.
The Trustees of the Wolfson Foundation indicated that they wanted to make a special grant to acknowledge the importance of Tate Modern and the impact it has had on the arts in the UK.
The new development will provide more space for contemporary art and enable Tate to explore new areas of contemporary visual culture involving photography, film, video and performance, enriching its current programme for a broader audience. Last year Tate Modern attracted 5.3 million visitors, the highest ever figure in its history, making it the second most popular tourist attraction in Britain. www.tate.org.uk