Tate have today announced that the new Tate Modern, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, will open to the public on the 17th June 2016.
To celebrate the opening, school children from across the UK will be invited to a special preview taking place on the 16th June. Young people will also be invited to celebrate the opening weekend and to explore the new building as well as responding to the art on display in the galleries.
The new Tate Modern will be opened with a complete re-hang, bringing together works from the collection with new acquisitions made for the nation since the gallery opened in 2000.
With an estimated 60% more display space, the Tate Modern will now feature over 250 artists from around 50 countries. The gallery will reveal how art has evolved from studios and salons where modernism was born all the way through to the interactive and socially-engaged projects happening around the world in the present day.
Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate said: “The new Tate Modern is an instrument that will allow us to offer a rich variety of experiences to visitors and opportunities to artists for different kinds of presentation of their work.”
The Turbine Hall will become the centre of the new gallery, with the existing six-storey Boiler House on one side and the new ten-storey Switch House rising above the tanks on the other side. The new Switch House is structurally complete, with the work now focusing on the interior of the new building and the brick façade. This new part to the Tate Modern will offer a variety of spaces for visitors and art such as the raw industrial tanks and the panoramic roof terrace overlooking the London skyline.
Chris Dercon, Director of Tate Modern explained: ” Art is one of the most dynamic and engaged forms of human behavior, and when people step into a museum today, they don’t want to step out of their life, they want to get closer to it. The new Tate Modern will be so much more than a container for art, it will be a platform for human encounters.”
Tate Modern will also present an even more diverse and international perspective on modern art. Iconic works by 20th century figures such as Pablo Picasso, Joseph Beuys and Mark Rothko will join the work of artists introduced to the public by the gallery such as Saloua Raouda Choucair and Meschac Gaba.
The new gallery will also feature a number of new acquisitions on display for the first time in 2016, including an installation of human hair and car bumpers by Sheela Gowda and an immersive multi-screen film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.