Tate Modern

• Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses

the United Kingdom's national collection of international
modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate
group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate
St Ives. It is located in the former Bankside Power Station,
in the Bankside area of the London Borough of
Southwark.
• Tate Modern is one of the largest museums of modern and
contemporary art in the world. As with the UK's other
national galleries and museums, there is no admission
charge for access to the collection displays, which take up
the majority of the gallery space, whereas tickets must be
purchased for the major temporary exhibitions.
 Gallerie
• The collections in Tate Modern consist of works of international modern and contemporary art dating from
s
1900 until today.
• Levels 2, 3 and 4 contain gallery space. Each of those floors is split into a large east and west wing with at
least 11 rooms in each. Space between these wings is also used for smaller galleries on levels 2 and 4. The
Boiler House shows art from 1900 to the present day.
• The Switch House has eleven floors, numbered 0 to 10. Levels 0, 2, 3 and 4 contain gallery space. Level 0
consists of the Tanks, spaces converted from the power station's original fuel oil tanks, while all other levels
are housed in the tower extension building constructed above them. The Switch House shows art from 1960 to
the present day.
• The Turbine Hall is a single large space running the whole length of the building between the Boiler House
and the Switch House. At six storeys tall it represents the full height of the original power station building. It
is cut by bridges between the Boiler House and the Switch House on levels 1 and 4 but the space is otherwise
undivided. The western end consists of a gentle ramp down from the entrance and provides access to both
sides on level 0. The eastern end provides a very large space that can be used to show exceptionally large
artworks due its unusual height.
 Collection
• exhibitions
The main collection displays consist of 8 areas with a named
theme or subject. Within each area there are some rooms that
change periodically showing different works in keeping with
the overall theme or subject. The themes are changed less
frequently. There is no admission charge for these areas.
 As of June 2016 the themed areas were:
• Start Display: A three-room display of works by major artists
to introduce the basic ideas of modern art.
• Artist and Society
• In The Studio
• Materials and Objects
• Media Networks
• Between Object and Architecture
• Performer and Participant
• Living Cities
There is also an area dedicated to displaying works from the
Artist Rooms collection.
 Tate Modern is housed in the former Bankside Power
Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles
Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station.
• For many years after closure Bankside Power station
was at risk of being demolished by developers. Many
people campaigned for the building to be saved and
put forward suggestions for possible new uses. An
application to list the building was refused. In April
1994 the Tate Gallery announced that Bankside would
be the home for the new Tate Modern. In July of the
same year, an international competition was launched
to select an architect for the new gallery.
• The most obvious external change was the two-story
glass extension on one half of the roof. Much of the
original internal structure remained, including the
cavernous main turbine hall, which retained the
overhead travelling crane.