Maria Balshaw, who in December announced her plan to step down from her role as director of Tate since 2017, said that UK chancellor Rachel Reeves should incentivize donations to museums’ endowment funds by offering bigger tax breaks to would-be philanthropists.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Balshaw said, “The government could do a lot more to incentivise giving by very rich people, because British museums are competing on a very uneven playing field compared with US institutions. Rachel Reeves . . . should think hard and creatively.”
She continued: “The arts are part of the public good so we need public funding, not just commercial and philanthropic. But we could make a real shift in terms of financial stability. A modest tax incentive for endowment giving would not be unaffordable, and it would be transformational.”
In June, Tate launched an endowment fund known as the Tate Future Fund with aims to raise £150 million (around $200 million) by 2030. As reported by the Guardian at the time, Balshaw said, “There are a number of organisations in the UK that are working hard to create endowments, especially in higher education, but no cultural organisation has done an active campaign like this before.” Since then, Tate’s endowment has risen to £55 million ($73.3 million) from £43 million at the time of its launch.
According to the FT, Tate recorded a £5 million operating deficit in 2024–25, but Balshaw said the institution is on track to maintain a balanced budget this year. She also said the government should mandate a “tourist tax” in England and reserve 80 percent of the revenues to continue free admission to museums.
“The British Museum and the V&A, in particular, hold the best of many other nations’ art and culture,” Balshaw said. “What does it say to people from the rest of the world if we say, ‘We’ve got your stuff, but we’re going to charge you to come in’? I don’t like that idea.”
