Jessica Morgan named new Tate director – with ‘big pay cut‘ to take job

Jessica Morgan, who has a reputation for developing international talent, starts her new job in January. Photograph: Gabriela Herman View image in fullscreen Jessica Morgan, who has a reputation for developing international talent, starts her new job in January. Photograph: Gabriela Herman Jessica Morgan named new Tate director – with ‘big pay cut‘ to take job Clear frontrunner leaves lucrative role at New York’s Dia Art Foundation to join UK arts organisation at critical juncture Jessica Morgan has been confirmed as the new director of Tate, marking her return to the arts organisation where she worked as a curator for more than a decade, at a critical juncture in its history. Morgan, the clear frontrunner in the race to replace Maria Balshaw, who left this spring after nine years in charge , is currently based in New York, where she has led the Dia Art Foundation since 2015. One talking point around Morgan was her wages at Dia, which were thought to be substantially more than the £220,000-£225,000 Balshaw earned at Tate. Tate’s chair, Roland Rudd, said he had paid Morgan the most he could “under the constrictions he faced”, confirming she was accepting a “very big pay cut” to take up the role. Described as “an agent of change” by Tate, Morgan will need to guide the organisation through a difficult financial landscape, raise poor staff morale and grapple with fluctuating visitor numbers. Tate at a turning point: new director must confront unwieldy ‘beast’ of an art institution Read more Rudd told the Guardian that Morgan was going to “question a lot of things” at the organisation. “She’s an agent of change, but she takes people with her,” he said. “At Dia she transformed that museum, but she’s done it in a way where she’s carried people with her and I really like that.” Morgan said it was an immense privilege to take over at Tate, which she called the “world’s foremost institution for international modern and contemporary art and for British art”. She said her time as curator at Tate “deeply informed” her work at Dia, where she placed “artists and our public at the centre of what we do”. Morgan added: “I look forward to this pivotal next stage at Tate and, most importantly, continuing and advancing the incredible work of Tate’s committed and talented team in the years to come.” She takes over an organisation that is bruised after a difficult few years. Finances were hit hard during the pandemic, leading to rounds of redundancies, restructuring and “culture war” battles that, according to one senior staffer, left staff morale “on the floor”. View image in fullscreen Tate staff strike outside Tate Britain in London in November 2025. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian Lately, there has been a more positive story, with the success of Balshaw’s Tracey Emin retrospective, the record-breaking ticket sales that accompanied the Frida Kahlo exhibition, and critical admiration for the Ana Mendieta show at Tate Modern. But Tate is unlike other British ar