Tate's finances are on the skids and I think I know why

Among the many destructive after-effects of the pandemic, the impact of two years of lockdowns has had serious consequences for public museums and galleries, particularly so for our national museums and galleries.

More than two-and-a-half years since the last restrictions were lifted, visitor numbers to many of the big London institutions have yet to return to the levels seen pre-pandemic, according to the latest figures released by the DCMS. Although the British Museum and Natural History Museum have come roaring back, surpassing their 2019/20 figures (the NHM attracting some half a million more visitors alone), the picture varies wildly, mostly between the more ‘scientific’ museums and those whose remit is visual art.

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The National Gallery, constrained since last year by its current rebuild of the Sainsbury Wing entrance (set for completion in spring next year), is still some 2.4 million below the 5.5 million of 2019. But perhaps most alarming are the fortunes of Tate’s London galleries, with Tate Modern seeing 1 million fewer visitors in the year to April than before the pandemic (5.7 million), and Tate Britain posting visitor numbers of 1.2 million, down 440,000 on 2019/20.

These figures are serious for Tate, which last year posted an £8.7 million deficit, and whose trustees approved a deficit budget for 2023-24. With visitor numbers only moderately increased, with inflation biting in increased costs and trading income down, and with Covid-related government support now ended, Tate faces some serious decisions; unless the new government swoops in with increased funding, or visitors magically reappear, Tate will have to decide what kind of cultural institution it wants to be for the next decade. Because although Tate’s travails aren’t unique among the ‘Big 6’ museums post-Covid, the fact that its audiences aren’t returning points to a bigger question about the institution’s position in the national cultural landscape.