Tate Britain: Millbank, London, SW1P 4
Opening Hours: Daily: 10am -6pm; Open ‘til 10pm on first Friday of the month.
Tate Britain all started with a sugar cube. Sir Henry Tate made his millions as a sugar merchant and then generously donated his beloved art collection to establish the then called National Gallery of British Art; the first of its kind to celebrate purely home-grown artists. Choosing the controversial location of the former Milbank Prison, an area of London renown for being run-down and having awful flooded marshland foundations (and the setting for Sarah Water’s novel, Affinity), he transformed the site along with the nations attitudes to art.
Nowadays the Milbank site continues to home the story of British art from 1500 to the present day as well as hosting the coveted Turner Prize annual award. The question now arises as to how Tate should manage to continue to showcase a national collection whilst also presenting the highlights of Modern and Contemporary art at the Tate Modern. Where should the likes of Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst, Francis Bacon and David Hockney as well as the rest of the best of British art be displayed? And even more debateable, in the cosmopolitan and multi-cultural country that we live in, how do we define what is deemed British and what is foreign? If anyone is up to the challenge then it is the Tate and with Henry Tate’s original mission still in mind, they are making art more accessible – to more people – more than ever!
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