Tate Liverpool to close for major £29.7m 'reimagining'

Tate Liverpool is set to close its doors this autumn as the gallery undergoes a £29.7million refurbishment which will see it not reopen until 2025.

Bosses at the 35-year-old Royal Albert Dock venue have described the work, in collaboration with RIBA Award-winning 6a architects and supported by £10m from the Government’s Levelling Up fund, as a ‘major reimagining’ so its gallery spaces can ‘meet the scale and ambition of today’s most exciting artists’ and create a ‘flexible and inviting’ environment.

Detailed plans of the work at the Grade I listed site are yet to be unveiled.

The gallery will shut on October 23, although it plans to get involved in one-off projects with other key spaces in Liverpool.

Meanwhile its current exhibition, JMW Turner with Lamin Forfana: Dark Waters, will be extended until September 24, and it's The Port and Migrations and Global Encounters will run into October. The venue will also take part in this summer’s Liverpool Biennial.

Helen Legg, Director, Tate Liverpool, said: “Since Tate Liverpool opened 35 years ago, the experiences our audiences want to have, and the kind of work artists want to make, have both changed significantly. So now is the time for us to reimagine the gallery for the 21st Century and strengthen the connection between art and people.

“Announcing this temporary closure gives everyone who loves Tate Liverpool a chance to return to the gallery before we begin the transformation process.

"It’s also important to us that our audiences know they will still be able to engage with Tate Liverpool during the closure period through the high-quality work we deliver within the city’s communities.”

Photo by Rob Battersby