In dialogue with Penelope Curtis, Tate Britain’s director

 

We have met Penelope Curtis at the MiArt, in Milan, a few days ago. Here a synthesis of our conversation.

 

As the director of a main museum, which is the mission you have given to yourself?

 

It was my mission to show British art; in a more simple sense was to show how the past speaks to the present and how, if we value the past, it will inform the present and the future as well.

 

How does your ideal museum look like?

 

My ideal museum is a pleasant building, with day-light, with a beautiful hang, with not too much information, but enough information, and not too many visitors, but enough visitors.

 

Are Museums like the Tate Britain playing a role in the European crisis? Or, should they?

 

To a degree, we are about the familiar and about continuity, and that’s very reassuring for people. And then we are also about change and about rethinking. So, for example, at the moment we have an exhibition of Kurt Schwitters in Britain, who came here as an exile from nazi Germany, went through a period of internment in an internment camp during the war, and then became very prolific in his very last years. So it is interesting to see what it means to be British and how people arrive here under very extreme circumstances and can still be artists. We did a show last year about migration and about how many artists, in the so-called British collection, came from abroad and we are doing quite a number of small displays, very often from the collection, which look at how works represent crisis, of different kind, whether it has to do with identity, status or displacement. These small changes in displays are a good counterpoint to the continuity and the reassurance of the permanent collection.

 

Which is the most inspiring museum for you …Tate excluded?

 

I think it all depends on my mood.

 

How do you expect the Tate would be like in 10 years time?

 

The Tate will have to rely less on the government and more on other kind of privately generating funding, which is both an opportunity and a risk in Britain. I think people are aware of the American model and the risks in bringing it to the European model. I think that it will be more risk taking, more daring. The collection in the past has been very much premised on oil paintings by famous artists, but we will have to look at other kind of arts and other kind of artists.

 

Which is the annual budget of the Tate Britain? How much does it come from the government?

 

At the moment we get 40% from the government and 60% from other sources.

 

Should access to public museums be free of charge or is the value better perceived when visitors pay a ticket?

 

This is a long argument and of course Britain has a very particular position within that argument, but I think that we have been growing up with free access to museums and want to be able to maintain that.

 

According to data, nowadays contemporary art has more audience than antiques and the market reflects this trend. How do you explain it?

 

There is more contemporary art to buy so it is easier as an investment. It is more available and also artists and galleries are very active in promoting contemporary art. What we could do here is combining the energies so that we have a combination of the historical and the contemporary. Because obviously contemporary artists love to look at historical art. And we have a great collection here at the Tate Britain and it is the collection which many of them grew up with.

 

Would it be better to have museums and art market more integrated or less connected as they are?

 

It is becoming more and more integrated and I think that can be useful if one is aware of the conflict of interests. We don’t need to be enemies as we are all, in a sense, working in the same field.
Which is your view on Italian museums?

 

There are many different museums. It depends where you are. Italy has more antiquities per square kilometre than any other country in the world so it’s an amazing richness. I love Castelvecchio museum in Verona, which was refurbished by Carlo Scarpa. It’s a great example of “allestimento”.

 

Which is your opinion regarding the Google Art Project?

 

The Tate has been pleased to be part of it. We were one of the first galleries and it was launched here two years ago. People at the Tate think it has been very successful but they went into it with eyes opened.

 

Are social networks an opportunity also for high culture, that is to say the culture that comes from the masterpieces of the past?

 

Yes, they are. Because people are interested to talk about these masterpieces and to show their views.

 

July 26, 2015