| Administrative History | Following the end of WWII the staging of temporary exhibitions had become increasingly popular at Tate, and a large number of these were provided and organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain. With little space available in London to accommodate large scale exhibitions, the Arts Council were dependent on the Tate's gallery spaces.
The division of responsibility for exhibitions and their respective policies were regularly debated by the two institutions.
In 1964, the Tate Trustees realised that the opening of the new Arts Council Gallery premises on the South Bank (originally scheduled for 1966) would mean a loss of most of the Arts Council exhibitions at Tate. This prompted an important memorandum on future exhibitions policy as a basis for an approach to the Treasury, to obtain a special exhibitions grant. The basis of this memorandum 'Future exhibitions at the Tate Gallery' can be found in the 1963/1964 Tate annual report.
In October 1966, the Tate Director voiced concern at the inequality of representation between the Tate and the Arts Council at consultations concerning agreement on a common policy.
The first meeting of the Arts Council/Tate exhibitions Committee took place in 1967 and a Tate Gallery exhibitions policy paper followed soon after. The Arts Council's new gallery space on the South Bank (the Hayward Gallery) opened in July 1968, and
in September a Tate exhibitions sub-committee was formed to debate policy and forward planning in view of the growing number of exhibitions organised by the Tate. |