Tate Modern

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Image:Tate Modern.jpg Tate Modern is Britain's national museum of modern art in London and, with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives, a part of the Tate Gallery.

The galleries are housed in the former Bankside Power Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for Battersea Power Station, and built in two stages between 1947 and 1963. The power station closed in 1981. The building was converted by architects Herzog & de Meuron and stands at 99 m tall. Since its opening on May 12, 2000, it has become a very popular destination for Londoners and tourists. Entry is free.

An extension on its south side, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, will increase the display space by 60%. This is scheduled to open in 2012. Galleries are located on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building. Thematically-arranged exhibitions from the gallery's permanent collection are located on the third and fifth floors, while temporary exhibitions are located on the fourth floor. The main hall of the building, which originally housed the power station's turbine, is also used for temporary exhibitions.

The turbine hall, that once housed the electricity generators of the old power station, is seven storeys tall with 3,400 square metres of floorspace.<ref name="the_guardian">Template:Cite news</ref> It is used to display specially-commissioned work by contemporary artists, between October and March each year, in a series sponsored by Unilever. This series was originally planned to last the gallery's first five years, but the popularity of the series has led to its extension until 2008.

The artists that have exhibited specially commissioned work in the turbine hall are:

2000 — Louise Bourgeois — Maman, I Do, I Undo, I Redo
2001 — Juan Muñoz — Double Bind
2002 — Anish Kapoor — Marsyas
2003 — Ólafur Elíasson — The Weather Project
2004 — Bruce Nauman — Raw Materials
2005 — Rachel Whiteread — Embankment

A popular approach to Tate Modern is via St Paul's Cathedral and the London Millennium Bridge. The closest tube station is Southwark, although Blackfriars tube station and a short walk over Blackfriars Bridge is often more convenient.

There is also a riverboat pier just outside the gallery called Bankside Pier, with connections to the Docklands and Greenwich via regular passenger boat services (commuter service) and the Tate to Tate service, which connects Tate Modern with Tate Britain via the London Eye.

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Gallery

Tate Modern from St Paul's Cathedral. The rebuilt Globe Theatre is in white, to the left.	Tate Modern in 2000 at the opening (and closing) of the Millennium Bridge.	Tate Modern from the Millennium Bridge.	Construction cranes forming an honour guard.
A view of the Millenium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral from the Tate Modern.	The Turbine Hall. No art work was on display in the hall at the time (June 2005).	Ólafur Elíasson's The Weather Project in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern.	A gallery in Tate Modern.