Maria Balshaw to Step down as Director of Tate Next Year
Tate has announced that Maria Balshaw will step down as Director next year, ending a transformative nine-year tenure at the helm of one of the world’s most influential art institutions. She will leave the role in spring 2026.
Balshaw, who became Tate’s first female Director in 2017, has overseen a period of significant artistic expansion, audience growth and international collaboration. Her leadership has been defined by a clear public mission: to broaden access to art and deepen learning across communities nationwide.
Among the landmark moments of her directorship was Steve McQueen’s Year 3 in 2019 – a vast civic portrait featuring 76,000 London schoolchildren. Her exhibition programme has since championed artists long underrepresented in major museums, including Women in Revolt, Life Between Islands, Leigh Bowery and Emily Kam Kngwarray, while reimagining the presentation of major figures from Cornelia Parker and Isaac Julien to Yoko Ono and, most recently, Turner & Constable.
Balshaw has also driven a major shift in Tate’s collecting strategy, significantly increasing acquisitions by women artists, Indigenous artists, Global South practitioners and leading textile and ceramic artists. This broader, more inclusive focus has helped reposition Tate’s national collection for a changing cultural landscape.
Her tenure marked a surge in public engagement: Tate now holds the largest arts membership in the world, with 150,000 Members and a rapidly growing Tate Collective community of 180,000 young people aged 16–25 – a scheme she launched in 2018 to nurture the next generation of art lovers.
Internationally, Balshaw expanded Tate’s global partnerships, strengthening relationships with institutions worldwide and supporting the circulation of Tate’s collection across continents.
Her influence has extended far beyond Tate. As Chair of the National Museum Directors Council, she secured vital capital maintenance funding for museums nationwide and emergency support during critical periods. She played a key role in the campaign to preserve Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage and served on the board of Factory International, maintaining strong ties to Manchester.
Balshaw’s legacy will endure through several major projects currently underway:
- The Clore Garden at Tate Britain, opening in 2026 in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society
- The complete transformation of Tate Liverpool ahead of its 2027 reopening
- The redevelopment of the Palais de Danse at Tate St Ives, once Barbara Hepworth’s second studio
She has also been instrumental in building Tate’s long-term financial resilience through a new endowment fund, launched earlier this year and already exceeding £50 million in donations.
Before she departs, Balshaw will curate a major retrospective of Dame Tracey Emin at Tate Modern, opening February 2026.
Maria Balshaw said:
“It has been an absolute privilege to serve as Director of Tate over this last decade and to work with such talented colleagues and artists. With a growing and increasingly diverse audience, and with a brilliant forward plan in place, I feel now is the right time to pass on the baton to a next Director who will take the organisation into its next decade of innovation and artistic leadership. My greatest thrill has always been to work closely with artists, and so it is fitting that Tracey Emin’s exhibition at Tate Modern will be my final project at Tate.”
Roland Rudd, Chair of Tate, said:
“Maria has been a trailblazer at Tate. She has never wavered from her core belief – that more people deserve to experience the full richness of art, and more artists deserve to be part of that story. As the home of British art and of international modern and contemporary art, Tate today reflects the audiences we serve and the artists who make up our nation. We engage a wider public than ever before through our own galleries, our digital channels, and our projects in other venues across the UK and the world. Maria has my heartfelt thanks for those achievements and for all her work over the past decade”.
