Gallery reopening put back by two years

Tate Liverpool closed in 2023 for a transformation which was expected to take two years.

A gallery has had to delay its reopening by two years because of difficulty raising the funds to pay for it.

Tate Liverpool closed in 2023 for a transformation which was expected to take two years, but it said it was now working towards reopening in 2027.

Helen Legg, director of the gallery, said work on the project started before the pandemic and that "raising money was a little easier in the climate."

"It has become more difficult. Now we are close to achieving our goals. It's taken us a little bit more time," she said.

Its hoped the renovation will enable to gallery to accommodate up to a million visitors each year, five times the amount it was designed for when it opened in 1988.

The gallery has managed to raise 17.85m of the £29.7m needed to complete the refurbishment.

The project has been financed with a £10m grant from the government's levelling up fund, as well as £6.6m from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

The Wolfson Foundation charity also donated 1.25m.

The gallery said the remainder will come from donations and other foundations.

The Tate said it hoped renovation would allow the gallery to accommodate up to a million visitors each year, five times the number it was designed for when it opened in 1988.

Ms Legg said the new design will showcase more of the building's connection with the city. It will also allow the gallery to accommodate larger pieces of art and more works from the National Collection.

"One of the things that we really wanted to do was to be able to feel more rooted in Liverpool," she said

"I think there were times when you would walk around the galleries and you could have been in a museum anywhere in the world. So what we really want to do is open the windows that were bricked up in the 1990s."