Expanded Tate Modern gallery to open June 2016

To mark the occasion, the new Tate Modern will reopen with a complete re-hang, showing works by over 250 artists from 50 countries.

He said: ‘I went to a meeting last night and they were making unequivocal statements rather than the caveated ones about progress we were getting this time previous year .

LONDON (AP) – Britain’s most popular art gallery, Tate Modern, says it will open a new 10-story extension on June 17 after a revamp that cost 260 million pounds ($400 million).

Announcing the opening on Tuesday, Sir Nicholas said Tate Modern had been a “catalyst for change” in the UK’s attitude to arts.

The new building will open to the public on 17 June, 2016. The gallery in a disused power station beside the River Thames in London opened in 2000 and draws more than 5 million visitors a year.

Like the original Tate Modern, the new building has been designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron. The largest funder is the government, which is providing £50m, along with £7m from the Greater London Authority.

Chris Dercon, director of Tate Modern, added the plans had been inspired in part after the 2003 Weather Project exhibition, featuring a rising sun in the Turbine Hall, had changed the way people wanted to take in art. Costs have gone up due to renovation works on the existing building, and £30 million still has to be raised.

“The new Tate Modern is an instrument that will allow us to offer a rich variety of experiences to visitors and opportunities to artists for different kinds of presentation of their work”, Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, added.

He said: ‘It would have been easier for us to build an office building that was square and nobody would have noticed and it probably would have been torn down in 20 or 30 years when someone had a better idea. I think it’s changing all the time…

He said: ‘I and the trustees are absolutely confident that we will raise that.

“We have a pretty good record of completing the fundraising for projects”. We have a brilliant record of reaching targets for fundraising projects, including the £7 million Tate St Ives extension’. A panel will be drawn up this month to begin the recruitment drive.

On the prospect of charging an entrance fee, Lord Browne said: “As far as we are concerned it is against the concept of what this place is which is the demonstration of art which is owned by the nation for the nation and therefore should be seen openly and fully without charging”.