Thank you very much for asking me to be here today…And apologies in advance that I have to rush off after this presentation because we are facing a rather busy day at Tate Liverpool The Turner Prize – what is it? Tate has often been asked this….but the facts are • • •
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The Turner Prize was established in 1984 to stimulate debate and interest in contemporary visual art. It can be awarded to a British artist, or to any artist working in Britain, who is aged under 50 and has produced and shown work in the 12 months before the shortlist is announced. The jury of four always includes an international curator or critic and this year’s judges are the critics Michael Bracewell and Manchester’s own Miranda Sawyer, and the curators Fiona Bradley from the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh and Thelma Golden from the Studio Museum in Haarlem New York. The exhibition opens tomorrow and runs until 13 January 2008 and the award ceremony will be shown live on Channel 4 evening news on 3 December.
It also brings with it a large amount of press coverage - or as a recent magazine article commented, “Thus, for British newspapers – along with Tim Henman’s gallant defeat at Wimbledon and the romantic life of Kate Moss – ‘Turner Prize outrage: Is It Art?’, has become a well-loved annual ingredient in the journalistic calendar.” The shortlisted artists this year are (going clockwise from the top left of this slide…) • Zarina Bhimji • Nathan Coley • Mike Nelson • Mark Wallinger But I’m not going to talk about their art today – do come and have a look for yourself. Because now the prize is at Tate Liverpool! Why? The Turner Prize is an integral part of Tate and by presenting it in Liverpool as a curtain raiser for 2008, as opposed to being a closing benison at the end of that year, the Gallery is demonstrating its commitment and support for European Capital of Culture in a very particular way. It has put a spotlight on the city, albeit that not all the building work has finished. It builds on Tate Liverpool’s strong reputation for exhibitions of cutting-edge contemporary art: in its near twenty year history, the gallery has hosted
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exhibitions by many of the artists shortlisted in the competition, frequently giving them their first major exhibition or mid-career retrospective. It has not come to Liverpool without a cost – literally, as we were determined to make entry free, unlike in London, so that as many people from across the region as possible could come and see what they thought. So we have raised nearly half a million pounds, from five funders, including NWDA, and launched a major marketing programme in the North West and particularly in London, to show the art world audience that the prize has in fact moved. Being in Liverpool also gives us some fantastic opportunities to do things differently – we have an enormous space for interpretation and group tours on the fourth floor of the gallery, and a massive outreach programme, including a taxi project involving Liverpool cabbies who have been trained by Tate to feel confident talking about modern art whilst in transit. Our building is also quite different to Tate Britain’s so our approach to the opening of the exhibition and the award ceremony on 3 December will have more of a relaxed party feel to it, and will include many guests from the north of England, as well as from London and overseas. The economic impact of a major event like the Turner Prize is substantial. During its run, we will be measuring • the range and depth of media coverage • the number and range of national and international visitors • what else they do and spend whilst in Liverpool • and the reason for their visit. We expect the Turner Prize to have a substantial influence on visits to the city. In addition, four other ‘alternative Turners’ are going to be running in Liverpool, and today also sees the launch of the Visual Arts In Liverpool programme, which will promote visual arts across the city to national and international arts journalists. NWDA has been an incredible partner in this venture. As well as being the first sponsor to come on board, the agency has worked with us to provide complementary advertising, including the film advertising currently running nationally in independent cinemas, as well as support for the Art Update map, which features Liverpool and the North West’s visual arts highlights on one side, and another major international city’s on the other. This initiative has been launched in London last week during Frieze art fair, and will move on to cover Paris, New York and Edinburgh next year. Tate is not just the Turner Prize – we are making a major contribution to Liverpool’s Capital of Culture programme in 2008. As well as playing a significant role in winning the bid, Tate Liverpool is also programming a major display of the jewels of the Tate’s international collection (just opened), being the venue for the international exhibition for the Biennial (next autumn) and showing temporary exhibitions such as Gustav Klimt next summer which will be a magnet for bringing visitors to the city. 2
The Turner Prize closes at the end of the weekend in January when the city launches 2008. We know that throughout the year Tate Liverpool will be playing a key role in delivering the range and quality of programme which will define Capital of Culture. Having an organisation like Tate Liverpool is important for the city and for the region. In our near twenty years we have helped develop other initatives like the Biennial, which are also world-famous. The creative industries, which use organisations like Tate to help drive their ideas and content, are now significant for both regional and national economic success, contributing as much as the financial services sector. Last year TMP measured that Tate Liverpool brought over £14.5m into the local economy through overnight stays and we were the main reason for visiting the city for over a third of our visitors, 17% of whom came from overseas. But beyond the economics, our mission is to develop the understanding, enjoyment and awareness of art. We look forward to welcoming all of you to the 2007 Turner Prize. Come to Tate Liverpool – and experience the effect.
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