Will the Tate’s endowment drive pay off?

Plus: The return of the Gilded Age

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Georgina Adam asks if the Tate's fundraising plans add up

On 25 June, Tate Modern marked its 25th anniversary with a lavish gala dinner in the Turbine Hall, attended by nearly 700 people. The guest list was a blend of the cultural, philanthropic and celebrity elite: trustees and patrons, as well as artists such as Marina Abramović and Antony Gormley and stars including Reese Witherspoon and Daniel Craig. Guests dined at round tables of ten and were entertained by performances by the Pet Shop Boys and Gwendoline Christie. A silent auction raised eyebrows and funds, with a Tracey Emin-embroidered tablecloth selling for £420,000. By the end of the night, the event had reportedly raised more than £1m.

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Killian Fox on how the Nordic food revolution reshaped our tastes

It happened at the most extraordinary pace. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Nordic region was renowned for many things – dramatic landscapes, winter sports, northern lights, reindeer – but a world-beating culinary scene wasn't one of them. Restaurant food was rarely thrilling. Fine-dining chefs looked to France for inspiration. Pride in local produce was notable for its absence. Then, in 2004, a group of chefs from Scandinavia, Iceland, the Faroes, Åland and Greenland, along with politicians, farmers and food industry reps, gathered at a symposium in Copenhagen and drew up a ten-point manifesto. The aim was to revitalise the regional food culture by prioritising fresh, seasonal ingredients sourced (or, better, foraged) as close to home as possible. Point number seven urged chefs to 'develop new applications of traditional Nordic food products'. Among the signatories was a hyper-focused young Dane named René Redzepi.

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Peter Watts puts in an order at the V&A East Storehouse

By the time I eventually get to the V&A East Storehouse, I can't remember what is waiting for me. It's been a month since I browsed the museum's 'Order an Object' catalogue in a state of mounting panic trying to find the perfect item from a list of 1.2 million. The plan was to make a selection, book an appointment and, two weeks later, head to the new storehouse in the Olympic Park, where my object(s) will be waiting for me. But when I start the process at the beginning of June, the first available appointment is not for another month. That's why I am travelling to Hackney on the hottest day of the year, trying to remember what I asked to see.

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Jane Morris finds welcome signs of life in London's gallery scene

Charles Saatchi was a genius of spin. He famously packaged a disparate group of young art school graduates as the Young British Artists in the early '90s and kicked off the idea of London as the art world's 'capital of cool'. Not all his boosterism was so effective (his New Neurotic Realism 'movement' being a case in point). His daughter Phoebe appears to be a chip off the old block. Last month Saatchi Yates, the swanky gallery she launched with her husband in 2020, announced its own version of the Summer Exhibition called 'London Rules the World'. The bill includes artists such as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, several YBAs, as well as younger artists who have made the city their home, including Alvaro Barrington and Olaolu Slawn.

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Lucy Waterson on the clinical art of Alexandra Metcalf

'Gaaaaaaasp' opens with what is immediately recognisable as a waiting room, or – given the viewing window in a temporary dividing wall – a space for clinical observation. Mustard yellow wallpaper that recalls 1970s interiors covers the walls and is trimmed by dark wood wainscotting, while a dropped office ceiling bears down on us. Uncomfortable-looking chairs line the room's edges and, on a small shelf high in a corner, the screen of a boxy television flickers and loops, omitting a low electrical hum. Cam 2017/2018 (2025) presents footage from Metcalf's own sessions with a therapist, but 'Gaaaaaaasp' does not confine itself to the artist's experience. Rather, like much of her work, through iconography and objects from the last century it explores the psychological torment some women have endured in domestic and institutional spaces.

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Emily Cox asks what the revival of Gilded Age art says about our own times

Emily Cox on what the revival of Gilded Age art says about our own times

The Gilded Age is back, and not just for a third season of Julian Fellowes' period drama of that name. In April, a writer in the Atlantic asked, 'Is the US in a Second Gilded Age?'; he had perhaps not read a New Yorker article on the subject, 'The Gilded Age Never Ended', from February. Both pieces reacted to the inaugural address of President Trump, who proclaimed that 'The golden age of America begins right now.' By that he meant a return, of sorts: to the time of Presidents William McKinley, who 'made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent – he was a natural businessman', and his successor, Teddy Roosevelt, whose Panama Canal Trump vowed that he was 'taking […] back' for 'history's greatest civilisation'. Behind him, three of the world's richest men – Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos – checked their phones.

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Will the Tate’s endowment drive pay off?

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