Tate Teens

Designing a service pathway that builds teenage creative confidence and lifelong engagement with the arts.

ROLE
Service Designer

SKILLS
User Research, Concept Development, Service Roadmapping, Stakeholder Co-creation

TIMELINE
Oct 2024 -> Feb 2025

TEAM
Maria Luisa Castro, Keiji Ichijo
Jessica Wonomihardjo, Yi-Hsuan Wu

Helping teenagers find their way into art spaces

Tate Teens explores how Tate can better serve and sustain relationships with teenagers aged 13–17, an audience often underserved within museum ecosystems. The project examines how early encounters with art can strengthen their creative confidence and participation, laying the groundwork for long-term cultural engagement.

Context

Art Feels Out of Reach

Teenagers are some of the most curious and creative individuals, yet they often feel disconnected from art institutions. For many, museums can seem too formal, academic, or reserved for others, making it hard to find personal meaning or connection. Interviews and surveys revealed layered barriers that shape this disconnect: practical, functional, & attitudinal.

A Gap Within Tate's Offerings

Looking across Tate’s existing offerings revealed a structural gap. Children are supported through Tate Kids. Young adults are engaged through Tate Collective. However, Teenagers sit overlooked between these offerings during a key transitional stage.

Teens aged 13–17 are defining independence and identity, but within Tate’s current offerings, they lack a clear entry point that speaks to their needs and autonomy. By strengthening partnerships with schools and supporting teachers in arts education, Tate can build a bridge between their current offerings and nurture lifelong creative engagement.

KEY CHALLENGES

01. Museums feel irrelevant & unappealing

Teenagers often perceive museums as adult spaces rather than places for exploration, experimentation, or self-expression.

02. Intermediaries for teens are disengaged

Access to art is mediated by teachers or parents, who may not fully engage with the content or have the resources.

03. School visits are unstructured

Without preparation or proper facilitation, many visits remain passive experiences that end without a reason to return.

Why this Matters

Adolescence is a formative period for identity, confidence, and creative risk-taking. Experiences during this stage influence whether art feels open or out of reach later in life. If cultural institutions want to build lasting relationships with future audiences, they must account for how confidence and agency are developed over time.

How might Tate create accessible, relevant, & inspiring experiences that empowers teenagers to confidently engage with art and foster their personal growth?

TATE TEENS

Value Proposition

Tate Teens offers a space for teenagers to explore art, express themselves, and build confidence in their own creative ways. The service bridges the playful spirit of Tate Kids with the dynamic energy of Tate Collective, meeting teens where they are and empowering them to engage with art on their own terms.

Our strategy is guided by three key principles:

01. Empowerment

Build a sense of agency, self-confidence, and ownership in teens’ artistic journeys.

02. Enablement

Facilitate skill-building, knowledge-sharing, and opportunities for meaningful engagement.

03. Equipment

Provide the tools, spaces, and resources that support ongoing artistic exploration and growth.s rather than places of curiosity or expression.

The Role of Intermediaries

Schools and families are the primary gateways for teenagers to access art and often the only avenue to engage with creative experiences. Yet, not all schools provide sufficient arts education, and teachers may lack the confidence or resources to inspire students.

Peers also play a crucial role. When friends are involved, new experiences feel less intimidating and provide a social safety net that encourages participation. Building on these existing networks is essential for Tate to help teenagers discover art in ways that feel both approachable and authentic.

A Teen-Led Ecosystem

At the heart of Tate Teens is a teen-led ecosystem.This system recognizes teenagers not as passive participants, but as active contributors shaping their own cultural experience. This ecosystem fosters shared ownership, collaboration, and a continuous exchange of learning and inspiration.

The Phased Roadmap

Building on this ecosystem, our strategy unfolds through a phased roadmap that aligns with Tate’s pre-visit, visit, and post-visit journey. Each stage — Now, Near, and Future — strengthens engagement at different moments in a teenager’s development, guiding them from first contact to lifelong connection with art.

Bringing the Strategy to Life

Now: Communication & Language

Establishing direct communication with teenagers begins with authenticity. By using clear, relatable language and meeting teens on the platforms they already inhabit, Tate can build genuine connection and relevance.

Near: Enhancing the School Visit Program

School visits are often a teenager’s first encounter with Tate — but without context, they can feel passive or disconnected. This phase focuses on equipping teachers with creative toolkits and guided resources to make visits more interactive, reflective, and empowering.

Future: Autonomous Engagement by Teens

The final phase encourages teenagers to see Tate as a place they can return to on their own terms. This stage fosters autonomy and belonging by turning Tate into a space for exploration, expression, and community.

Concepts & Design Explorations

Translating the roadmap into tangible ideas and playful experiences across touchpoints.

TATE TEENS GUIDEBOOK: A playful, accessible guide designed to make museum visits feel exciting and approachable.

TATE TEENS GUIDEBOOK: Reimagining physical space at Tate to be inclusive, youth-friendly, and supportive of creative exploration.

PERSONALIZED 3D ONLINE GALLERY: A digital experience that lets teens design avatars and curate their own virtual galleries using artworks from Tate’s collection, building confidence in creative decision-making and storytelling.

TATE COLLAGES: An interactive digital activity where teens remix elements from Tate’s collection to create their own collages. This encourages personal interpretation, creativity, and self-expression through art.

A HOLISTIC STUDENT VISIT: Bringing together learning, play, and reflection to create meaningful, lasting connections between teens and art.

The Impact

Tate Teens reframes teenage disengagement as a design responsibility.

By improving early encounters and supporting continued participation, the service creates clearer pathways from teenage visitation into sustained engagement.

For Teens

Tate Teens creates experiences that feel approachable and relevant during a formative stage of identity and self-expression. Through repeated engagement, teens build creative confidence, develop their own perspectives, and begin to see cultural spaces as places they can return to and shape. Over time, this lays the groundwork for lasting relationships with art and culture beyond formal education.

For Tate,

the service strengthens the pipeline between youth engagement and Tate Collective, supporting long-term audience development and future membership by sustaining relationships through adolescence rather than allowing engagement to drop off after school visits.