Maria Balshaw on Creative Rebellion, Life After the Tate & The House as a Container

Beyond the whirlwind of galleries and exhibitions, Tate Director Maria Balshaw 's home holds the quieter, deeply personal moments of her life. Growing up in Northampton, she longed to escape her characterless new-build house and nurtured a desire to be different. Her current home in Kent is a reflection of that creative rebellion, with medieval beams at its centre, classical sash windows on one side and Crittalls on the other. Maria grows vegetables in her garden year-round, swims in the sea nearby, and measures time by what’s coming into flower – a way to be at one with nature and shed the stress of an urban working week. Her mother spent her final months in this house, sitting on the terrace in the sun, watching buzzards circle the valley, convinced one of them was her late husband waiting for her. At the end of March, Maria is stepping down from her position at the Tate after nine years, signing off with a major Tracey Emin exhibition. She knows exactly where she’ll be the following morning: in the garden, in her wellies, at the start of the growing season. This is a conversation about movement and rootedness – and about what it means to build a home that can hold both. This episode was recorded inside Maria’s home in Kent. A full tour of the home and garden is available to our Patreon community. Patreon: To hear more from us: YouTube:

You can listen to Maria Balshaw on Creative Rebellion, Life After the Tate & The House as a Container online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Maria Balshaw on Creative Rebellion, Life After the Tate & The House as a Container is an episode from The Modern House Podcast by Matt Gibberd.

This episode is 76:32 long.

This episode was published on Mar 19, 2026.

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