Tate is reportedly poised to cut 7% of its workforce as part of an institution-wide push to reduce costs. Approximately 40 roles have been cut via recruitment freezes, targeted restructures and voluntary exits. This follows the publication on 3 December 2024 of its 2023-2024 annual report and accounts, which stated that for 2024-2025 the museum group would be operating on a deficit budget.

In January, when asked for the exact amount of this deficit, a spokesperson declined to answer. Instead, they told The Art Newspaper: “The entire sector is being affected by the rising cost of utilities and services, the real-terms decline in public funding, and the impact of inflation on consumer spending and tourism.”

In 2020, after six months of Covid-induced closure, the institution openly sought staffing cuts of 12% in order to save the £4.8m it said it needed to survive the pandemic. The scheme was announced on its website; 167 people took up that offer. This time around, however, no voluntary redundancy scheme was publicly announced.

In December 2024, The Art Newspaper was informed that several senior directors were “being made redundant” and that “jobs across the institution were under consultation”. When asked to confirm this in January, a Tate spokesperson confirmed only that “there were no compulsory redundancies last year [in 2023-2024] and none so far this year [in 2024-2025].” When asked in late February about voluntary redundancies, a spokesperson said that there had “not yet been any voluntary redundancies in the 2024-25 financial year.”

Meanwhile, Polly Staple announced via Instagram on 12 December 2024, that she would be stepping down from her role as the Tate’s Director of Collection, British Art, at the end of the year. Neil McConnon, who was hired in 2020 as Director, International Partnerships, Tate Modern, has also departed.

These high-level exits have raised concern that by cutting roles, Tate risks stripping out crucial expertise at senior leadership level. Curatorial roles like Staple’s come with access to professional networks (of museum partners, artists and collections), as well as the critical creativity, experience and judgment that keep the institution’s programming robust, and now stands to be lost.

The Art Newspaper‘s exclusive visitor figures survey, which will be published later this month, shows that attendance in 2024, relative to 2019, put Tate Modern at -25%, Tate Britain at -32% and Tate St Ives at -37% (Tate Liverpool is closed until 2027). While this is in step with other struggling London museums (the National Gallery is at -47% and the Royal Academy, a staggering -50%), Tate is nonetheless doing worse than most international competitors. Even the Hermitage in St Petersburg is only down by -28% compared with 2019.

While some criticshave blamed Tate’s curatorial programming for its anaemic visitor numbers, Frances Morris, Tate Modern’s former director, says the offering is not responsible. Morris, who served on Tate staff for 35 years in total, sees it as “radical, broad, diverse”. She says: “Tate does genuinely reach out. There’s something for everybody. There have been some heavy hitters and maybe it could do with some more, but I commend the curatorial team, particularly at Tate Modern. Everything is done with integrity and skill, and that’s the thing that’s most at risk, in reducing the team that delivers the programme.”

The “real-terms decline” in public funds has made museums across the board particularly vulnerable. “I love the Tate and always have done,” Morris says. “I think it’s an amazing organisation with a great history and it will have a great future, it will survive. But it’s having a battering at the moment and that’s very upsetting to see — I have a lot of great friends there, too, and I don’t like to see them in distress. It is evident that this government needs to step up and understand that these are real crises affecting real people in museums whose work brings meaning to their audiences’ lives.”

Government support, however, is only part of the solution. As several sources put it, for Tate to weather this particular storm, its senior leadership needs a stronger sense of purpose and vision. It needs to fundamentally bolster its financial management. And it needs to better care for its employees.