- Alan Bowness
Sir Alan Bowness
CBE is a British curator and museum director.Between 1980 and 1988, Bowness was Director of the
Tate Gallery , realising the long desired expansion of the site atMillbank with the creation of the Clore Wing dedicated to the work ofJ.M.W. Turner . Bowness was also responsible for the creation of the outpostTate Liverpool , both projects being achieved through gifts from charitable trusts. At a time when the public grant to the Tate had been capped, Bowness established two supporters groups to fund the purchase of new work and set up theTurner Prize to promote contemporary British artists. His acquisitions for the Tate collection includedSurrealist and American artworks. He also setTate St Ives in motion by fostering links with the Cornish town of St Ives, a location favoured by many artists, through assuming management of theBarbara Hepworth Museum in 1985.As a curator Bowness' main area of interest was British
modern art — he has close personal links with both theHenry Moore andBarbara Hepworth families — and during his directorship the Tate's temporary programme concentrated on artists from this area. In 1987, the Tate's trustees elected not to renew Bowness' contract. Since then Bowness has been director of theHenry Moore Institute inLeeds ,Yorkshire . He was knighted in the 1988New Year Honours . [LondonGazette|issue=51171|supp=yes|startpage=1|date=30 December 1987|accessdate=2008-10-08] [LondonGazette|issue=51292|startpage=4089|date=7 April 1988|accessdate=2008-10-08] He is also an Honorary Fellow ofDowning College, Cambridge .References
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/historyhtml/people_dir_bowness.htm Archive Journeys: Tate History entry]
* [http://www.dow.cam.ac.uk/dow_server/mfs/honorary_fellows/A._Bowness.html Downing College entry]
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