Tate has announced that Maria Balshaw will step down as Director in Spring 2026, bringing her nine-year tenure to a close. Balshaw, who has led the institution since 2017, will depart following a period of significant expansion in audiences, programming and long-term investment.
“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.”
Maria Balshaw
During Balshaw’s leadership, Tate broadened its reach both nationally and internationally. Landmark moments included Steve McQueen’s Year 3 (2019), a collective portrait of 76,000 London schoolchildren, alongside a programme of major exhibitions that expanded the institution’s artistic scope, including Women in Revolt, Life Between Islands, Leigh Bowery, Emily Kam Kngwarray, and recent reappraisals of Cornelia Parker, Isaac Julien, Yoko Ono, and Turner & Constable.
Balshaw also oversaw a significant shift in Tate’s collection strategy, increasing gender balance and geographic diversity, with stronger representation of Indigenous artists, the Global South, and expanded focus on textile and ceramic practices.
Under her tenure, Tate built the largest arts membership in the world, now numbering 150,000 Members, alongside 180,000 young people enrolled in Tate Collective, the 16–25 programme launched in 2018. She also expanded Tate’s international partnerships, extending the reach of the collection and its research through collaborations worldwide.
Beyond Tate, Balshaw chaired the National Museum Directors’ Council, playing a key role in securing capital maintenance and emergency funding for UK museums. She also worked with Art Fund and Creative Folkestone to safeguard Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage and serves on its Advisory Board.
Her leadership leaves a lasting infrastructural legacy, with major projects underway including the Clore Garden at Tate Britain (opening 2026), the transformation of Tate Liverpool (opening 2027), and the renovation of the Palais de Danse at Tate St Ives. Central to Tate’s future sustainability is the endowment fund Balshaw established with Chair Roland Rudd, which has raised over £50 million to date.
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”.
Balshaw’s final project at Tate will be a career-spanning exhibition of Dame Tracey Emin at Tate Modern, opening in February 2026.
About
Maria Balshaw has been Director of Tate since June 2017. She was previously Director of the Whitworth, University of Manchester; Director of Manchester City Galleries; and Director of Culture for Manchester City Council. She holds a BA in English Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Liverpool, an MA in Critical Theory and a DPhil in African American Visual and Literary Culture from the University of Sussex. She has been Chair of the National Museum Directors’ Council (2021-2025) and a Trustee of Factory International in Manchester (2016-2025). She is a member of the Women Leaders in Museums Network and the Bizot Group of leading global museums. She has published five books, including last year’s Gathering of Strangers: Why Museums Matter, alongside numerous essays and articles. In 2015 she was awarded a CBE for services to the arts.
