The New Tate Modern will open on June 17 2016, while visitor numbers are at a record.UK school children will be invited to an exclusive preview before the public opening, the Tate announced as it released its annual report today. The result will be the most important cultural building to open in the UK for almost two decades, the UK gallery network said.Schoolchildren from around the UK will be invited to a preview on Thursday June 16.Tate’s annual report for 2014/15 shows this was its best year for visits. There were 7.9 million in all, with a record 5.7 million to Tate Modern.Tate also presented its most successful exhibition, “Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs” at Tate Modern, with 560,000 visitors.The Turbine Hall will become the heart of the new gallery, with the existing six-floor Boiler House on one side and the new 10-floor Switch House rising above the Tanks on the other.The new Switch House is now structurally complete, with work continuing on the interior and the unique brick facade.The result will be 60 percent more display space for more than 250 artists from about 50 countries.The new Tate Modern will be unveiled with a complete re-hang, bringing together works from the collection - works by major 20th century figures, such as Pablo Picasso, Joseph Beuys and Mark Rothko - with new acquisitions made since he building first opened in 2000. The newer artists include Saloua Raouda Choucair, Meschac Gaba and Cildo Meireles, respectively from Lebanon, Benin, and Brazil.Many new acquisitions will also be shown for the first time, from an installation of human hair and car bumpers by Sheela Gowda, to a room full of giant burlap sacks by Magdalena Abakanowicz and a film by Cannes prize-winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul (respectively from India, Poland, and Thailand).In 2006, it was projected that the new Tate Modern building would cost £215 million at 2012 prices. The scope of the project has grown and with renovation works on the existing building and the total project cost in line with 2016 prices is £260 million.Tate and architects Herzog & de Meuron have worked with designer Jasper Morrison and landscape architect Günther Vogt. The original building was Bankside Power Station, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station.
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