21st July: Tate Gallery opened

On this date in 1897 London's Tate Gallery, now known as Tate Britain, opened.

1. When it first opened, it was called the National Gallery of British Art and was founded when Sir Henry Tate, of Tate and Lyle sugar fame, a major collector of Victorian art, offered to fund the building of a gallery for British Art on the condition that the State pay for the site and revenue costs. He donated his own collection to start things off. It was controlled by the National Gallery until 1954. Another fact about Henry Tate - he introduced sugar cubes to the UK.
2. It was built on the site of a prison. Millbank Prison, to be exact, an establishment which, for part of its history, housed convicts who were destined to be deported to Australia.
3. The building is made from Portland stone and the architects were James Stirling, Sidney R. J. Smith and John Russell Pope.
4. It initially concentrated on Victorian art, which of course, was the modern art of the time. Now, it holds the largest collection of British art in the world from 1500 to the present day. Artists on show here include Gainsborough, Hogarth, Millais, Whistler, as well as contemporary artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst. It has the largest collection of works by JMW Turner in the world.
5. The Turner prize exhibition is held at Tate Britain every year from October to January. British artists under the age of 50 were eligible to enter. The award is often controversial with past winners being Damian Hirst's pickled Shark and Tracey Emin's unmade bed.
6. As of 1st June, the director is Maria Balshaw, replacing Sir Nicholas Serota.
7. There are Tate galleries in other parts of the UK, not just in London. Tate Liverpool opened in 1988. In 2007 when Liverpool was about to become European City of Culture for 2008, Tate Liverpool hosted the Turner prize. Tate St Ives opened in 1993.
8. There's also another Tate Gallery in London - the Tate Modern, which opened in 2000. It was at this point that the original gallery changed its name to Tate Britain, as its focus now was British art from 1500 to the present day, while Tate modern has art from 1900 to the present day.
9. The Tate receives annual funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
10. The Tate logo was designed by Wolff Olins in 2000. It is meant to represent the idea, "look again, think again." It's slightly blurred or pixillated appearance is meant to convey that Tate is constantly changing but always recognisable.