The Whitworth's Maria Balshaw is new Tate director

Tate has officially confirmed that Maria Balshaw, currently director of the Whitworth and Manchester City Galleries, has been appointed its new director. Balshaw, who succeeds Sir Nicholas Serota, will be the gallery’s ninth director and the first woman to be appointed to the role, which she begins 1 June.

“I am honoured to be asked by the Trustees of Tate to become the new Director,” said Balshaw in a statement. “Under Nicholas Serota’s leadership, Tate has changed forever how we all think about art and artists and has made visual art a central part of a vibrant cultural life in the UK. I am tremendously excited to be leading Tate in the next chapter of its life. I look forward to developing Tate’s reputation as the most artistically adventurous and culturally inclusive gallery in the world.”

Balshaw, who was born in Birmingham and grew up in Leicester, has had a short but impactful career in the arts. Her tenure at the Whitworth saw the gallery win the Museum of the Year prize in 2015, with the building also nominated for the Stirling Prize for architecture.

Maria Balsaw biography

• Balshaw began her career in academia in 1988, reading English Literature and Cultural Studies at Liverpool University, followed by a Masters in Critical Theory and a DPhil in African American Visual and Literary Culture at the University of Sussex in 1991.

• She became lecturer in Cultural Studies at University College Northampton in 1994 and then as Research Fellow in Urban Culture at the University of Birmingham in 1997.

• Her first job in the arts was in 2002 when she became director of Creative Partnerships: Birmingham, the government’s drive to inspire creativity in schools. She then worked directly for Arts Council England as Director of Development and External Relations in the West Midlands before being recruited as the Director of the Whitworth.

• In 2004 she was selected as one of the inaugural Fellows for the Clore Leadership Programme.

• In 2006 Balshaw was named Director of the Whitworth. Her tenure saw critical acclaim for her bold and challenging programme, particularly in terms of her approach to bringing the historic collections and contemporary art together as part of a dialogue about the relevance of art for society today. In her role at the Whitworth she has consistently championed women artists, commissioning exhibitions from major figures such as Lynn Hershman Leeson, Mary Kelly, Joana Vasconcelos, Marina Abramovic, Jane and Louise Wilson, Elizabeth Price and, for the reopening of the Whitworth, a ground-breaking mid-career show by Cornelia Parker.

• In 2010 she received a Paul Hamlyn Breakthrough Award.

• In 2011 she became Director of Manchester City Galleries. Her dual Directorship represents a unique partnership between the University of Manchester and Manchester City Council, bringing the two institutions and Manchester’s historic and contemporary art collections into complementary alliance for the first time. Balshaw has also been responsible for significantly expanding the collections of both galleries, bringing over 1000 new works into the collection during her time there.

• In 2015 the new Whitworth opened, winning numerous awards, including a Stirling Prize nomination; the gallery also won Museum of the Year in 2015, its first year of operation. She was also awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the arts.