Why the National Gallery is creating a public panel to help shape its future

What do you expect to see when visiting the National Gallery in London? A neatly curated collection of landscape painting? Or a selection of the gallery’s must-see highlights – a veritable who’s-who of art history?

Both are reasonable expectations – but why? What does this tell us about the purpose and priorities of the National Gallery? This is a question underpinning NG Citizens, a recently announced initiative which sees the National Gallery promising to put people from across the UK “at the heart of its decision-making”.

This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

Launching this autumn, NG Citizens will form a citizens’ assembly of 50 participants chosen by a civic lottery. Building on the gallery’s previous efforts co-creating projects with its target audiences, NG Citizens is “a culture-shaping step” designed to ensure the gallery remains “relevant, inclusive and genuinely reflective of the public we serve”, according to Jane Knowles, the gallery’s director of public engagement.

So why now? The National Gallery is not struggling to attract people. Its latest figures show that last year, there were more than 4.7 million visitors to the London gallery and its touring displays – an increase of almost 10% from 2023.

Having recently celebrated its bicentenary, the National Gallery is keen to secure its position in the UK’s cultural landscape for another 200 years. With this in mind, NG Citizens is central to the gallery’s plans for the future.

These emphasise the need to demonstrate that it is a “national institution at the heart of national life”. This aspiration is supported by the creation of a new national learning service which aims to share the gallery’s collection with as wide an audience as possible.

Given the increasing international erosion of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)-related work, NG Citizens is a response to the UK museum sector’s wider commitment to access and inclusion. Museums and galleries are responding to this in several ways, from showcasing the work of marginalised, often-overlooked communities to amplifying the voices and experiences of staff, and publicising strategies for accountability.

Paving the way

This, however, isn’t the first time galleries and museums have sought public input – regional institutions have already been paving the way for NG Citizens.

In 2024, Nottingham’s New Art Exchange launched the Voice Assembly. Tasked with “shaping the future of art and culture in a meaningful, citizen-led manner”, Voice became the first initiative of its kind in which a cultural institution integrated a citizen assembly as part of its permanent leadership.

NG Citizens also draws inspiration from the timely work of Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury. Last year, this pioneering project saw Birmingham Museums invite 30 of the city’s residents to engage directly with the decision-making processes that will help to reshape the future of the group’s activities.

Over a series of six sessions, participants worked together to reimagine how the city’s cultural institutions can play a sustainable and meaningful role in public life. All those involved agreed that museums should provide experiences that are educational and improve knowledge. There was overwhelming agreement, too, that the city’s museums should welcome and inspire people of all ages and backgrounds, not just be spaces for an educated elite.

Yet these points have already raised concerns, including questions surrounding the intention of NG Citizens. While initially praising the scheme, UK museums consultant Maurice Davies has questioned whether the gallery is actually changing the way things are run, or if NG Citizens is simply a more sophisticated form of audience research.

Further concerns have been raised by critics worried over the extent to which the initiative will affect the content and purpose of the National Gallery’s collections and displays. For example, Evening Standard columnist Melanie McDonagh has questioned whether NG Citizens undermines the gallery’s reputation, describing it as “an awful idea” while arguing that “the point of the gallery is not to solicit the opinions of an uninformed public”.

Such concerns prompted swift responses from the National Gallery, reassuring critics that NG Citizens will not be directly involved with the selection of artworks and curation of exhibitions.

Why NG Citizens will be consulted on the gallery’s future purpose but not involved in curatorial decisions remains unclear. Perhaps reimagining the curatorial model of “experts” selecting works for public display, based on connoisseurship and notions of taste, will be the task for future groups of NG Citizens.

Is it the case, then, that the National Gallery is playing catch-up with both regional museums and industry research? For those engaged with museum and heritage studies, the question of audience engagement and participation is nothing new.

Research groups and institutions across the UK are continually exploring methods of collaboration to assess how co-production can improve public engagement.

There is still work to be done to ensure that UK museums and galleries offer fair and equal access to all members of society. However, I believe NG Citizens presents an exciting opportunity to put the public at the centre of the National Gallery’s approach to future working practices.

The gallery’s initial aim is to ask NG Citizens to reconsider its role in public life. Through opening this revered institution to more democratic modes of thinking and audience collaboration, perhaps soon a reasonable question to ask people will be: “What would you like to see at the National Gallery?”

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