Seven Big Issues Awaiting Jessica Morgan at Tate

A lot of ink has been spilled over Tate’s shortcomings over the last few years. The art behemoth has been criticised for becoming too comfortable in its own skin; over reliant on reputation alone to draw visitors. Major exhibitions slated, decision-making questioned, a lack of accountability and footfall in decline. There have also been staff cuts and industrial action. The museum’s identity has been accused of selling out to contemporary art trends and branding. Many of its employers will be glad to see the back of its recently departed director, Maria Balshaw.

Earlier this week, her successor was announced. Unto the breach, Jessica Morgan. The former director of New York’s Dia Art Foundation is returning to Tate, where she was a curator from 2002 to 2014. She’s taking a £400,00 pay cut – she pocketed the equivalent of £615,000 in her final year at Dia – and her in-tray will be full when she takes up the post in January. On top of the Tate, she will be overseeing the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and also sites in Liverpool, which is currently being redeveloped, and St Ives, a remote outpost in Cornwall. Morgan, it seems, likes a challenge.

Jessica Morgan. Photo: Olivia Hemingway

“It is an immense privilege to be asked by the trustees to become the new director,” she said in a statement. “Tate is undoubtedly the world's foremost institution for international modern and contemporary art and for British art, leading the field through its collection and exhibition programme.”

Tate’s trustees have laid out their expectations in no uncertain terms: Morgan must be close to artists, close to donors, and make sure exhibitions “thrill and educate.”

Rebuilding Tate’s financial stability

Morgan inherits a museum facing serious financial strain. Years of staff cuts, low salaries and industrial disputes have drained morale. Earlier this year, squeezed working conditions and labour rights, including the closure of the subsidised staff canteen, led to a general strike of Tate workers and the site of employees picketing the museum as visitors entered to see shows. 

Tate’s ability to maintain ambitious exhibitions and collections depends on restoring financial confidence. By that measure, Morgan’s fundraising experience at Dia and her relationships with collectors will be crucial. But she will need to convince donors that Tate’s future is worth investing in while protecting the institution’s public mission.

The financial challenge facing Tate is becoming more urgent as museums internationally compete for private support. Tate recently launched a US-style £150 million endowment campaign, but Morgan enters a landscape where other major institutions are also thinking bigger. The National Gallery in London has demonstrated the power of aspirational  fundraising under director Gabriele Finaldi, securing hundreds of millions of pounds to execute a controversial but no doubt ambitious expansion, acquisitions and development programme. Morgan should take note. 

Reviving Tate’s appeal to visitors

Tate’s reputation has not translated into the same level of public excitement it enjoyed in previous decades. Since 2020, blockbuster exhibitions have become harder to deliver, with only a small number of shows attracting the crowds once associated with Tate Modern’s golden years. Morgan must bring back the sense of occasion that made exhibitions in the Turbine Hall commissions and major retrospectives seem like cultural events of generational significance.

Her previous work in London suggests she understands the power of spectacle. She helped curate memorable Tate Modern projects including Carsten Höller’s slides in the Turbine Hall and Tino Sehgal’s “These Associations.” The challenge is creating exhibitions that feel ambitious and surprising without relying on hype, something the museum has fallen prey to of late. 

Carsten Höller, Test Site, 2006 (installation view, Tate Modern). Photo © David Olivari

Repairing confidence in Tate’s curatorial judgement

Recent exhibitions have fuelled criticism that Tate’s programming has become too predictable – and too driven by current debates. Criticism aimed at the Frida Kahlo exhibition and Máret Ánne Sara’s Turbine Hall commission, for example, raised questions about whether Tate’s internal standards are strong enough. Does the museum have a curatorial backbone? Can they still define the agenda, rather than respond to it?

Morgan must restore a sense of authority. She has built her career on identifying artists with lasting importance, from Lebanese modernist Saloua Raouda Choucair while previously at Tate to Joan Jonas and Jo Baer at Dia. 

Rebalancing Tate’s collection

Morgan’s career has been shaped by expanding the art historical canon. At Dia, she increased the representation of women artists and challenged the dominance of sacred cows and unquestioned orthodoxies in the curatorial world. At Tate, she will face similar pressures.

But she will also have a few aces up her sleeve. Tate’s collection is already one of the world’s great repositories of modern art  and many major works remain absent from display. Paintings by Picasso, de Kooning, Chagall, and Hockney are among the masterpieces that frequently disappear from view. Morgan must decide how far Tate should continue searching for overlooked histories while ensuring that its greatest works remain central to the public experience, if presented in fresh, contemporary and lively fashion.

Dia Beacon, 2006. Photo: Rolf Müller

Defining Tate’s role as rivals expand

Morgan also inherits a strategic challenge from outside the institution. The historic division between Tate and the National Gallery is being tested as the latter expands its collecting ambitions into modern and contemporary art.

For more than a century, Tate has been the national home for British art and, later, one of the world’s leading museums for modern and contemporary work. The National Gallery’s move into later periods risks creating competition over artists, audiences, funding and acquisitions.

Morgan needs to protect Tate’s distinct identity. Tate Modern cannot simply assume that its position as the country’s leading modern art institution will remain secure indefinitely. Morgan will need to make the case for why Tate’s approach, collections and expertise remain essential.

Escaping the trap of contemporary art fashion

Morgan has herself criticised a museum sector that can be too willing to reactively follow the passing fashions and fads of the commercial art sector. That gives her an advantage because she understands the dangers of chasing relevance for its own sake. Her appointment comes at a moment when Tate has been accused of prioritising novelty and ideological positioning over sound and timeless artistic judgement.

Therefore, defining what Tate stands for will be a priority. A contemporary museum must engage with new voices but it must also decide which artists will endure beyond the moment. Morgan has to be seen to do that, and with success.

Proving that an insider can deliver change

Morgan’s greatest challenge may be the contradiction at the heart of her appointment. She is both a returning insider and a promised reformer.

Her previous role at Tate helped shape the international, contemporary-focused institution that exists today. She understands its ambitions because she helped build them. That experience gives her authority, but critics will ask whether she can challenge the culture she once belonged to.