Weird, I thought brexit would massively increase tourism 🙄
5 years ago we entered Covid lockdowns and it took 2 years for normal service to resume. If we are using 5 years as measurments then we do rather need to look at this piece of context. Otherwise this just seems like mood music for cuts to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
The British Museum in particular seems to have bounced back harder than anywhere else since covid, but I’m not totally sure why that is – having to pre-book or face a half hour queue would have been totally alien six or seven years ago when you could just waltz in.
Both times I’ve been to the Tate last year it’s been teeming with visitors – to the point that you honestly couldn’t increase occupancy any more and still have a reasonably enjoyable experience.
JJ Charlesworth’s commentary on this subject is worth investigating. What are galleries for? Is it displaying art that people want to see, or is it advancing social causes? Apparently the latter doesn’t draw numbers and doesn’t pay the bills.
I just bought my yearly pass for Tate, money well spent
The Tate Modern is nothing but wokery bullcrap. Make museums interesting again and attendance will go up.
I’ve bought a years membership, it’s a great way to spend a Sunday. Just the building itself is beautiful. Also it’s packed on the weekends.
It’s because Modern Art is literally garbage. Honestly, a bucket of sand? An office chair with a castor missing? A urinal which isn’t even the fucking “original’ urinal. A mess of coat hangers?
It’s crap that looks like a failed school art project. Then you have the choice to see the contents of a skip or go to the National Gallery. It’s a no brainer.
How do they measure visitor numbers if you just walk in and don’t need a ticket (for those artworks /exhibitions where no fee applies)….
Or do they mean fee-paying tourists?
Good to see that prick losing money. Why does he even have a museum anyway?
This has just reminded me I haven’t visited in years! I used to wander in whenever I was on southbank to see if there was anything fun and interactive in the turbine hall (big crack in the floor and loads of seeds were my favourites to walk around) but during covid it turned into ticket only for so long I just gave up ever trying to wander in again.
If museums had stuff I wanted to see I’d actually go. National maritime museum has an exhibition on pirates so I’m probably gonna go see that, while Chatham dockyard has the great shipwrecks made out of LEGO which is really interesting to.
The tate is fairly rubbish. Huge architectural space but the exhibits are rubbish and a lot of empty buildings
The Tate, like all museums and art galleries really struggles to make their exhibits accessible.
I remember looking at piet Mondrian’s paintings since I like a few of them. Nothing in the exhibit told me why all the different variations of his black lines and filled boxes were important, interesting, worthy of critique. There was no story about how he had developed his artistry, why art like his is considered ‘good’ and so on. It was just a big set of rooms with his paintings displayed and dates next to them and maybe a handful of plaques pointing out that his art style developed over time (no shit).
As someone with a casual interest in art of all kinds, it’s just shameful that the big public galleries do nothing to help explain and contextualise exhibits to the masses.
I understand that they have a commitment to sharing art and history for free, as it allows access for everyone, but i feel like they could more with things like the Tate Lates; they are incredibly well attended and when they feature artists like Little Simz there is literally no space to move. There are loads of little areas to sit and chat with some light engagement event going on, and there is always good vibes. Maybe the responsibility is on people to donate something nominal like £1, as that would surely add up to the £500k each year they were losing. It is a balance to providing these kinds of experiences to everyone but i don’t think anyone would be upset at them monetising some aspect of those events without negatively affecting the overall experience.
I miss the late night Fridays. It was a lovely way to end the week, wander around a gallery, get a drink before either going on elsewhere or going home.
Have they actually lost money, or is it all projected?
18 comments
Weird, I thought brexit would massively increase tourism 🙄
5 years ago we entered Covid lockdowns and it took 2 years for normal service to resume. If we are using 5 years as measurments then we do rather need to look at this piece of context. Otherwise this just seems like mood music for cuts to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
The British Museum in particular seems to have bounced back harder than anywhere else since covid, but I’m not totally sure why that is – having to pre-book or face a half hour queue would have been totally alien six or seven years ago when you could just waltz in.
Both times I’ve been to the Tate last year it’s been teeming with visitors – to the point that you honestly couldn’t increase occupancy any more and still have a reasonably enjoyable experience.
JJ Charlesworth’s commentary on this subject is worth investigating. What are galleries for? Is it displaying art that people want to see, or is it advancing social causes? Apparently the latter doesn’t draw numbers and doesn’t pay the bills.
I just bought my yearly pass for Tate, money well spent
The Tate Modern is nothing but wokery bullcrap. Make museums interesting again and attendance will go up.
I’ve bought a years membership, it’s a great way to spend a Sunday. Just the building itself is beautiful. Also it’s packed on the weekends.
It’s because Modern Art is literally garbage. Honestly, a bucket of sand? An office chair with a castor missing? A urinal which isn’t even the fucking “original’ urinal. A mess of coat hangers?
It’s crap that looks like a failed school art project. Then you have the choice to see the contents of a skip or go to the National Gallery. It’s a no brainer.
How do they measure visitor numbers if you just walk in and don’t need a ticket (for those artworks /exhibitions where no fee applies)….
Or do they mean fee-paying tourists?
Good to see that prick losing money. Why does he even have a museum anyway?
This has just reminded me I haven’t visited in years! I used to wander in whenever I was on southbank to see if there was anything fun and interactive in the turbine hall (big crack in the floor and loads of seeds were my favourites to walk around) but during covid it turned into ticket only for so long I just gave up ever trying to wander in again.
If museums had stuff I wanted to see I’d actually go. National maritime museum has an exhibition on pirates so I’m probably gonna go see that, while Chatham dockyard has the great shipwrecks made out of LEGO which is really interesting to.
The tate is fairly rubbish. Huge architectural space but the exhibits are rubbish and a lot of empty buildings
The Tate, like all museums and art galleries really struggles to make their exhibits accessible.
I remember looking at piet Mondrian’s paintings since I like a few of them. Nothing in the exhibit told me why all the different variations of his black lines and filled boxes were important, interesting, worthy of critique. There was no story about how he had developed his artistry, why art like his is considered ‘good’ and so on. It was just a big set of rooms with his paintings displayed and dates next to them and maybe a handful of plaques pointing out that his art style developed over time (no shit).
As someone with a casual interest in art of all kinds, it’s just shameful that the big public galleries do nothing to help explain and contextualise exhibits to the masses.
I understand that they have a commitment to sharing art and history for free, as it allows access for everyone, but i feel like they could more with things like the Tate Lates; they are incredibly well attended and when they feature artists like Little Simz there is literally no space to move. There are loads of little areas to sit and chat with some light engagement event going on, and there is always good vibes. Maybe the responsibility is on people to donate something nominal like £1, as that would surely add up to the £500k each year they were losing. It is a balance to providing these kinds of experiences to everyone but i don’t think anyone would be upset at them monetising some aspect of those events without negatively affecting the overall experience.
I miss the late night Fridays. It was a lovely way to end the week, wander around a gallery, get a drink before either going on elsewhere or going home.
Have they actually lost money, or is it all projected?
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