Tate Modern, the world-renowned museum of modern and contemporary art, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a four-day vibrant celebration from May 9 to 12, 2025. The milestone event invites the public to enjoy various free activities inspired by the museum’s collection, from live music and performances to art-making workshops and exclusive tours.
Karin Hindsbo, Director of Tate Modern, expressed the gallery’s transformative influence over the past quarter-century: “Tate Modern has made an incredible impact in just 25 years. It has exploded the canon of art history, transformed the public‘s relationship with contemporary art, and rewritten the rules for what an art museum can be. Our birthday weekend will be a wonderful chance to see what we do best and taste where we‘re going next – for free!”
Anniversary Celebrations – Highlights
Coinciding with the celebrations, Tate Modern will reveal a unique display of 25 seminal works from its history, taking visitors on a journey through its collection. Among the highlights is the return of Louise Bourgeois‘s monumental sculpture Maman. The 10-meter bronze spider, which first welcomed visitors to Tate Modern when it opened in 2000, will finally return to the Turbine Hall.
Other displays include Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals from Tate St Ives and Dorothea Tanning’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, followed by its showcase in a significant Paris exhibition. Contemporary installations, such as Nalini Malani’s immersive multi-screen film work and Meschac Gaba’s interactive live tarot readings, will also feature prominently.
Catherine Wood, Director of Programme at Tate Modern, elaborated on the concept behind the display: “We wanted to celebrate our 25th anniversary with a capsule collection of 25 key works, which will lead visitors around the building on a journey from old favourites to discoveries. The selection showcases how art—and Tate Modern—has always pushed the boundaries and challenged norms, ultimately letting us all see the world through new eyes.”
New Exhibitions Reflecting Urgent Themes
To mark the anniversary, two new free exhibitions will open, spotlighting contemporary concerns and innovative artistic approaches.
A Year in Art: 2050 explores speculative visions of the future, juxtaposing works like Umberto Boccioni’s Futurist sculptures with Ayoung Kim’s computer-generated animation set in a futuristic Seoul.
Gathering Ground assembles international contemporary art that addresses the intersections of ecological crisis and social justice. The exhibition features work by Outi Pieski, Carolina Caycedo, and Edgar Calel and a participatory installation by Abbas Zahedi, specially commissioned for the anniversary.
A Landmark in Modern Art
Tate Modern‘s anniversary will be a birthday celebration of its past times and a reflection of its ongoing impact on the work of artists and society. Pop-up talks, workshops by UNIQLO Tate Play, and themed food and drink complete the visitor’s offer.
Since opening its doors in May 2000, Tate Modern has rewritten what it means for an art museum to function and purposefully push boundaries within an ever-changing art world, both past and present. Now, the 25th anniversary will continue this way, setting up an even more exciting future.
Tate Modern’s Birthday Weekender will include…
Free Art
Visitors will be met by Louise Bourgeois’s iconic steel spider Maman, standing 10 metres high at the heart of the Turbine Hall, where it was first unveiled 25 years ago. Everyone is then invited to have their height marked on the Turbine Hall wall as part of Roman Ondak’s collective performance, Measuring the Universe. These fleeting marks will grow into a vast collective constellation as the weekend continues. A trail of 25 inspiring artworks will lead visitors across the museum, highlighting much-loved classics and new arrivals, from Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí to Monster Chetwynd and Pipilotti Rist. There will also be live tarot readings in Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art and performances by artists including Abbas Zahedi, Lawrence Lek, María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Maxime Jean-Baptitste.
Free Music
DJs will be bringing the party to the Turbine Hall, Tanks, Corner Bar and Terrace Bar all weekend, including headline sets on Friday night from BBC Radio 1 DJ Jaguar and Romy (DJ set), and a rare London takeover of the Tanks from music collective CULTUR FM on Saturday evening. Further DJ sets will be programmed by Jumbi Peckham, NiNE8 Collective and Radiate Festival on Friday, Crystallmess, DAYTIMERS and Queer Bruk on Saturday, and House of Dad on Sunday. Community platform foundation.fm will also be broadcasting live from Tate Modern with music and conversation on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
Free Exhibitions
Aged 16-25? For one weekend only, Tate Collective can enjoy free entry to all four of Tate Modern’s current exhibitions: Leigh Bowery! brings together outlandish costumes, photographs, paintings and videos to explore how this provocative figure changed art, fashion and pop culture. Electric Dreams offers a dreamscape of machines, movement and captivating installations that play with your perception. Anthony McCall: Solid Light is an immersive environment created by projecting beams of light through a thin mist, resulting in mesmerising, ever-changing sculptures. The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh invites visitors to explore captivating large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings which ask questions about home, memory and identity.
Free Talks, Tours and Workshops
The Starr Cinema will host panel discussions chaired by Tate Modern’s Director, Karin Hindsbo, and Chief Curator, Catherine Wood, as well as artist talks by Nalini Malani and Robert Zhao Renhui. Visitors can drop in on a creative coding workshop led by tech experts at Goldsmiths and UAL, a community conversation hosted by Tate Neighbours, and a hands-on interactive Make Studio as part of UNIQLO Tate Play. The galleries will feature pop-up Ten Minute Talks, British Sign Language and Audio Description tours, and a host of daily free tours for visitors of all ages. There will also be free workshops led by the team at Kazvare Made It in the UNIQLO Tate Shop, a new collaborative space to shop, play and make thro