August 5, 2025 · View original
Compared to 2019, the Tate galleries in London are seeing ~2.2 million fewer visitors, representing an approximately 27% decline in patronage. Much of this is coming from a decline in international/European visitors. They’re at 61% of pre-COVID levels, whereas domestic visitors are at 95%.
One of the biggest groups to fall off has been young visitors (aged 16-24) from the EU. Between 2019-2020, the Tate Modern alone welcomed 609,000 people from this segment. By 2023-2024, this had dropped to 357,000 and it remains depressed.
So now the Tate is cutting its staff and blaming two macro changes: the pandemic and Brexit. Though some people are arguing that it’s really because the programming has been too woke and stuff.
In my mind, the Brexit excuse makes the most sense because it has clearly created additional friction. If you’re a school traveller in France and want to visit the UK, you now need to complete a school trip information form (I’m assuming this wasn’t the case before).
And if you’re a student from any another country, you need a passport. In some cases you may also need a visa. So it makes sense that schools and teachers might say, “yeah, let’s make our lives easier and just stay within the EU.”
Based on a very cursory review of how other cultural institutions are doing, this possibly checks out. In 2019, the Centre Pompidou in Paris welcomed over 3.2 million visitors and in 2024 it welcomed 3.2 million visitors. In 2019, the musée d’Orsay and the musée de l’Orangerie welcomed over 4.6 million visitors, and by 2023, this number had jumped to over 5.1 million.
Could it simply be better programming? Yes, of course. But it’s hard to argue that erecting barriers to become more closed off from the rest of the world, won’t, you know, make you more closed off from the rest of the world. Here we’re just talking about one cultural institution in the UK. But the lesson scales.
I’m thinking of you right now, America.