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Director
Tate Modern (London)
| Appointee | Frances Morris |
|---|---|
| Role | Director |
| Organisation | Tate Modern (London) |
| Domain | Art Institutions |
| Start | 1 June 2016 |
| End | Currently in role |
| Notes | First woman to direct Tate Modern |
Institutional context
Tate Modern is the United Kingdom's principal museum of modern and contemporary art, opened in May 2000 in the former Bankside Power Station. The Director is the senior officer of the institution. From 2000 through 2016, the prior Directors of Tate Modern (Lars Nittve, Vicente Todolí, Chris Dercon) were all male. Morris is the first woman and first British director of Tate Modern.
Career path
Morris earned her undergraduate degree in art history from King's College, Cambridge in 1978 and a master's at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She joined Tate in 1987 as a curator in the Modern Collection. She became Head of Displays when Tate Modern opened in 2000, then Director of Collections (International Art) in 2006, leading major retrospectives including Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, and Alberto Giacometti.
Appointment
Tate announced her appointment as Director of Tate Modern in January 2016, succeeding Chris Dercon. She served until February 2023, when she was succeeded by Karin Hindsbo and assumed the title of Director Emerita. She received the CBE in 2023.
Tenure
Seven years. Tenure included the opening of the Switch House extension (later the Blavatnik Building) in 2016, expanding Tate Modern's exhibition space substantially, and the institution's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cluster context
Morris's 2016 appointment is the earliest of the principal art-institutional cluster events. Together with Feldman at the National Gallery of Art (2019), des Cars at the Louvre (2021), and Alemani at the Venice Biennale (2022), the period 2016–2022 saw simultaneous first-woman appointments at the largest art institutions in their respective national contexts.