LONDON.- The place of the contemporary visual arts in British society has been transformed over the last twenty years. The Plus Tate network, bringing eighteen cultural institutions together with Tate, provides a snapshot of this dynamic creative ecology. Research published today, Plus Tate: Connecting Art with People with Places, reveals the huge regenerative and economic benefits of this group of organisations. The success of Plus Tate has led to plans to expand the network in spring 2015.
Together the Plus Tate partners, excluding Tate sites
· attract 3.5 million visits annually;
· employ around 500 staff;
· collectively have an annual turnover of around £33 million.
The wider public benefit does not just stop at the gallery door. In addition to extensive exhibition and learning programmes around international contemporary art, each institution is deeply committed to working with their local community attracting new and diverse audiences to art. Their onward supply chains generate substantial economic benefit.
Nicholas Serota, Director
Tate said “The impact across communities through the imaginative work of these dynamic visual arts organisations has been transformational. Their ongoing success, however, depends on continuing strategic investment. We must make sure we nurture a creative asset that is admired across the world.”
Plus Tate is one of Tate’s best-established networks. Established in 2010, the partnership brings Tate together with eighteen partner organisations across the UK. The Plus Tate partners are: Arnolfini, Bristol; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Cornerhouse, Manchester; firstsite, Colchester; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; Grizedale Arts, Coniston, Cumbria; The Hepworth Wakefield; Ikon, Birmingham; Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; mima, Middlesbrough; MOSTYN, Llandudno; Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, Penzance; Nottingham Contemporary; The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney; Towner, Eastbourne; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester; and Wysing Arts Centre, Bourn, Cambridgeshire.
Plus Tate partners share information, for example on developing philanthropy, integrated programming, social and cultural value, leadership development and best practice in digital audience analysis. Important benefits generated so far by the partnership have been the positive regenerative effects produced through exhibition, learning and wellbeing programmes and support for the cultural and the creative sectors through commissioned works of art and artist development.
