Project Summary

At March Meeting 2011 Tate presented its ongoing work to improve the global spread of its collection. Tate’s aim is not only to acquire works from regions less present in its current collection but also to foster long-term relationships with those areas. Tate’s Latin America Acquisitions Committee has been operating since 2002, while its Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee launched in 2007. In 2009 Tate established the Middle East and North Africa Committee, which was advised in its first year by Turkish curator Vasif Kortun. As a policy Tate does not display art by region or country but instead integrates works from across the globe into thematic displays. At March Meeting Tate presented its strategies for displaying work acquired through these committees, such as its Level 2 gallery, as well as its education programmes, such as the 3-month artist-in-residence collaboration with secondary schools across London.

Presentation Proposal

This presentation will examine the Middle East and North Africa within Tate’s Global Collection. It will present Tate’s ongoing collecting policy, the use of recent acquisitions and their integration into the display of art at the museum, including public programmes and outreach projects. This project is ongoing.

Speakers

Kyla McDonald has been Assistant Curator of International Art at Tate Modern since 2008. She currently works on the acquisition of International Art for the Tate Collection with special focus on the Middle East and North Africa. She previously worked as Assistant Curator at Tate Liverpool from 2005-2008, and worked on exhibitions such as Niki de Saint Phalle (2008), the Liverpool Biennial (2006 and 2008), The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China (2007) and How it looked and How it Felt: Works from the Tate Collection (2008).

Nora Razian has worked in the Learning and Interpretation Department at Tate since 2009. She is currently Curator of Community and Access programmes. Previously she was Curator of Illuminating Cultures at Tate Britain, an artist-led education and outreach programme focused around contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa.

December 2011

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