Tate Liverpool

The Tate Liverpool is an art museum, part of the Tate network, housed in a former warehouse in the Albert Dock historical site on Liverpool’s waterfront.

History
Opened to the public in May 1988, with over 480,000 yearly visitors in 2022/23* Tate Liverpool is the most visited art museum in Northern England.
Liverpool is currently one of the most lively modern and contemporary art destinations in the UK and the Tate, together with the Liverpool Biennial and the Bluecoat Art Center, is one of the driving forces of this success.

Above: Tate Liverpool, exterior view; on the right: the installation The Source by Doug Aitken, part of the 2012 Liverpool Biennial; photo Infinite3d via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The gallery was conceived in the 1980s as a “Tate of the North” to help rejuvenate Liverpool, once a leading industrial center that faced a dramatic decline from the mid-1970s, as part of the redevelopment plan of the city’s disused dockyard on the River Mersey’s waterfront.
The project of the museum’s home was developed by British architect James Stirling who left the iron-and-brick facades and structure of the historical building, designed by Jesse Hartley and Philip Hardwick in 1846, substantially untouched while he created new flexible spaces suitable for different types of artwork and exhibition layouts inside.

* Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/museums-and-galleries-monthly-visits

Aerial view of the Albert Dock in Liverpool; photo Mariusz Kluzniak via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Program of exhibitions and events

The Tate Liverpool features both a semi-permanent exhibition presenting pieces from the Tate national collection of British and international modern and contemporary art and a dynamic program of special exhibitions.

Currently, the semi-permanent exhibition features 173 works – paintings, sculptures, installations, and photographs – by 20th and 21st-century artists such as Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Joseph Beuys, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Schütte, Louise Bourgeois, and Glenn Ligon, among many others, thus spanning over one hundred years of European and American art.

Tate Liverpool’s program of events and activities comprises special exhibitions – both solo retrospectives and thematic exhibitions focused on international modern and contemporary art -, guided tours, talks, learning courses, educational programs, creative workshops, and special events.

The Tate Liverpool also accommodates educational spaces, a shop, an event space, and a cafe.

Images 

General view of the Albert Dock with the Tate Liverpool on the left; photo Helen Haden via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Photo Stephan Rinke via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The main entrance of the Tate Liverpool, photo Holly Hayes via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Tate Liverpool, interior view; photo Sharon Vander Kaay via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)