Pedants' Paradise

[Stillhomewardbound]

But (as I also said) there is a certain logic to Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

I have little hesitation in styling the rebranding of The Tate as 'Tate Britain' as cultural vandalism.

'Tate Modern' made plenty of sense and firmly differentiated it from the Tate so they could have left the main gallery exactly as it was.

It's a horrible and tacky piece of branding that is very passe and too redolent of all the vacuity of that 'Cool Britannia' branding that swept in with the Blair era.

[gurnemanz]

I have little hesitation in styling the rebranding of The Tate as 'Tate Britain' as cultural vandalism.

'Tate Modern' made plenty of sense and firmly differentiated it from the Tate so they could have left the main gallery exactly as it was.

It's a horrible and tacky piece of branding that is very passe and too redolent of all the vacuity of that 'Cool Britannia' branding that swept in with the Blair era.

I can sympathise with that opinion but don't feel as strongly about it. I still refer to the "Tate Gallery" and know what I mean, but can understand that with four galleries, they couldn't really have one called The Tate Gallery. Since it is for art from Britain, there is a kind of inevitability to the name they chose.

[jean]

...I still refer to the "Tate Gallery" and know what I mean...

But do the people you're talking to?

[gurnemanz]

But do the people you're talking to?

Probably force of habit or maybe Humpty Dumpty tendency.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think of the Tate Gallery in London as The Tate. Calling it Tate Britain merely reinforces the idea that London is Britain. It puts Liverpool and St Ives firmly in their places.

Speaking of Liverpool, my father took me to Manchester Art Gallery when I was young, promising to take me to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, as it had a better collection. He kept his promise, and I thought his assessment was correct.

[jean]

I think of the Tate Gallery in London as The Tate.

But now there are two of them!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But now there are two of them!

I know, and like all four Tates, they are all in Britain (England actually).

[visualnickmos]

I have little hesitation in styling the rebranding of The Tate as 'Tate Britain' as cultural vandalism.

'Tate Modern' made plenty of sense and firmly differentiated it from the Tate so they could have left the main gallery exactly as it was.

It's a horrible and tacky piece of branding that is very passe and too redolent of all the vacuity of that 'Cool Britannia' branding that swept in with the Blair era.

There seems to be an almost obsessive desire 'with them what's powerful' to constantly have to change known and liked identities. It's just like when you think you've memorised the layout of the aisles in your favoured supermarket (thereby facilitating the possibility of doing a quick mad dash shop for a few bits for a late supper) and then finding the b********s have moved everything around for no reason whatsoever!!!!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's a bit like the Lindsay String Quartet renaming themselves as The Lindsay's, as though they don't want anyone to know what they do.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Calling it Tate Britain merely reinforces the idea that London is Britain. It puts Liverpool and St Ives firmly in their places.

My experience of Tate St Ives to date suggests that its place is pretty damn low! Great location, great building, just a shame about the contents

For the uninitiated, there's no permanent collection: what you get is some temporary exhibition of some not-very-prominent post-1900 artist or artists. A much better bet is the wonderful Barbara Hepworth studio and sculpture garden, just a few hundred yards inland but abysmally badly signposted. You can buy a joint ticket, but next time I'll probably save some dosh and go straight to the Hepworths....if I can remember the way!

[french frank]

Tate.

Don't know why all of them had to be called Tate anything.

[jean]

But to call them something else would obscure the fact that they really are parts of the same institution - the long-term exhibitions we have are from the Tate's collections. I don't know how they decide what to send to St Ives, but we don't have to make do with some not-very-prominent post-1900 artist or artists.

The special exhibitions are another matter though, and it annoys me when people say of one of ours 'When is it going to London?' It never does.

[french frank]

Yes, they're part of the same institution, though Tate Modern doesn't cover the same field, and the original building was built to house the Tate bequest: hence Tate Gallery. I was really highlighting the fact that their website refers to the gallery, in every grammatical context as Tate: "When Tate first opened its door ...", "Directors of Tate". I think it sounds peculiar :-)

[Stillhomewardbound]

Yes, they're part of the same institution, though Tate Modern doesn't cover the same field, and the original building was built to house the Tate bequest: hence Tate Gallery. I was really highlighting the fact that their website refers to the gallery, in every grammatical context as Tate: "When Tate first opened its door ...", "Directors of Tate". I think it sounds peculiar :-)

What I find alien about these re-branding concepts is that they are without any root. The example quoted here by ff could well be accompanied by the bracketed clause ... (as in The Tate Gallery, but always known colloquially as 'Tate').

However, 'Tate' as a descriptor has no organic root.

No Londoners had ever referred to this gallery, I'd suggest, by way of 'let's go up and contemplate the Constables at, y'know ... 'Tate'.

It is purely a marketing invention which reeks rather of an 'OK, Yahh!' influence. Just as when 'the Notting Hill Carnival' was truncated to 'Gosh, Carnival ... Yah!'.

'Cool Britannia', 'Team Britain', 'Gov UK' and such, they are each manufactured slogans, made up in Mayfair amidst a morass of advertising and marketing mongrels.

... and by the way, I'd really be happy if I can have back the 'NFT' aka the National Film Theatre beneath the arches of Waterloo Bridge.

Oh yes, I know it's still there, but now it has to BFI. For why the f*** I don't know but that's where I did my first courting and I will only ever know it as the NFT.

[french frank]

But 'branding' is king. Charities rebrand as Mind, Scope, Care; public organisations: Liberty, Relate, Unite. I really don't think removing the 'The' from The Radio 3 Forum is going to be enough: Onwards? Upwards? Advance? Retreat? Regroup? Rethink? Reflect? Bother!? Hope? Hopeless? <Sigh>?