Frances Morris, Former Director of Tate Modern and Chair of Gallery Climate Coalition

Frances Morris CBE, Director Emeritus of Tate Modern and Chair of Gallery Climate Coalition, joined us for our symposium, Shared Seas: Coastal Encounters.

Shared Seas: Coastal Encounters, part of our Can the Seas Survive Us? season, was a two-part programme was hosted at the Sainsbury Centre, reawakening the radical ethos upon which the Centre was founded.

Conceived in the 1970s as a rule-breaking experiment in what a museum could be, the Centre now reimagines its role as a civic force for climate action, justice, and collective care. As the 1.5°C threshold becomes a lived reality, museums stand at a crossroads. No longer neutral repositories of the past, they must step into the foreground to convene, to challenge, and to lead.

Frances Morris chatted to us about the ever-changing role of museums, especially as places of community and social change.

Check out our Can the Seas Survive Us? season until 26 October 2025.