Helen Legg Departs Tate, Joins Royal Academy as Artistic Director

Helen Legg will depart her role as director of Tate Liverpool and join the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) as artistic director from June 2026, the London school and gallery announced today.

Legg spent her early career as a curator at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, before being appointed director of Spike Island, Bristol in 2010. She has been director of Tate Liverpool since 2018 and, during her tenure, has overseen high profile international exhibitions and commissions, alongside the transformation of the gallery’s Grade 1-listed building, which will reopen in 2027.

Legg said in a statement: “I’m thrilled to be appointed artistic director at the Royal Academy. The RA is led by leading artists and architects, with the UK’s oldest—and crucially free—art school at its heart.

“The opportunity to shape the RA’s artistic programme and respond to its extraordinary gallery spaces, as well as launching the expanded Collection Gallery, is tremendously exciting.”

The RA’s Collection Gallery is currently closed as part of a redevelopment by David Chipperfield Architects, and is slated to reopen with an expanded 12-metre-high space in 2027.

The newly appointed artistic director has been part of selection committees for British and Scottish representation at the Venice Biennale, and has been a judge for the Turner Prize, the Contemporary Art Society’s Museums Award, the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture, the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the Paul Hamlyn Artist’s Awards.

The RA has also appointed two further new members to its senior leadership team. Livia Evans will take up the role of commercial director from June, following a decade with retail business the John Lewis Partnership, while Lamia Dabboussy will join as director of brand and audiences, having previously been director of engagement at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

Rebecca Salter, president of the Royal Academy of Arts, said: “We are delighted about these exciting new appointments. The Royal Academicians and Council are confident they will build on and deliver the important work for which the Royal Academy is internationally renowned.”

All three appointments come after a difficult year for the RA, following the announcement of plans to cut around 18 percent of its workforce in early 2025. In reaction to the proposed job cuts, in March last year, the institution faced staff protests.

Earlier this month Sotheby’s hosted the auction RA: Artists Supporting Artists, which included donated works by Tony Cragg, Anish Kapoor and William Kentridge. The sale raised over £2 million, all of which will go to support the academy’s work.