Documentary that profiles one of Britain's most popular and colourful art institutions, the Tate Gallery in London, which celebrates its centenary today.
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Today's Choices: Mr Tate's Gallery 7.40pm BBC2
Few cultural institutions have had as stormy a history as that of the Tate Gallery, which celebrates its 100th birthday today. As Frances Spalding, author of the book The Tate: a Centenary History, says: "It's a history full of disaster, scandal, Philistinism... but there have been wonderful successes, leadership and vision."
Sugar tycoon Henry Tate was an avid art collector who donated the modern equivalent of £6 million to turn the site of the Millbank Penitentiary into a National Gallery of British Art. Now, new galleries have opened in St Ives and Liverpool and Bankside Power Station has been converted into the Tate Gallery of Modern Art.
Taking part in the programme are Britain's best-known living artist David Hockney and art critic Waldemar Januszcak. Also marking the centenary are 12 90-second films in which enthusiasts discuss their art work from the Gallery. Among them are Jeanette Winterson on Lucian Freud, Willie Carson, Michael Palin and Chris Smith MP.