‘It’s a bit clandestine, a bit punk’: the guerrilla scheme letting skint artists mass-share gallery membership cards

‘It does feel somewhat divisive’ … a lockbox containing a Tate members’ card, attached to a London phone box. Photograph: Jay Izzard

On a railing, not far from Tate Modern, is a lockbox. Enter a code and inside is a membership card to the museum, enabling free access to its temporary exhibitions. You get your ticket, you return the card.

The Artist Membership Project, much to the ire of the city’s arts institutions, has been operating for three months with more than 600 members, mostly artists and recent graduates. Curator Ben Broome, who describes the guerrilla initiative as “part mutual aid project, part artwork”, estimates that those signed up have saved thousands of pounds in museum entry fees.