The Tate galleries have lost 2.2 million visitors in the past five years. That’s a drop of more than a fifth since pre-pandemic times. Tate has been in discussions with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport about its financial position, with trustees acknowledging “uncertainty” over its ability to remain a going concern.You’d hope this would spark some reflection about whether the Tate, and museums more broadly, are truly engaging audiences in the way they once did. But instead, the discussion seems to have turned inward, focused more on curatorial ideology than the people walking through the doors.
