On 10 May 2024 the National Gallery will be 200 years old, and will start their bicentenary celebration, marking two centuries of bringing people and paintings together.
For 12 months from 10 May 2024, the National Gallery will celebrate theirpast and look forward to the future with a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination which sets the tone for the third century.
The gallery is inviting the public to join the celebration as part of an ambitious programme of events and exhibitions that extends from the Gallery into Trafalgar Square, across the nation, and to the world through a series of online and virtual experiences.
Nationwide Events
NG200: National Treasures
12 simultaneous exhibitions opening on the same day – 10 May 2024 – at 12 museums and galleries across the 12 regions of the four nations of the UK, and each centred around a National Treasure. More than half the UK population will be within an hour’s journey of a National Gallery masterpiece.
NG200: Art Road Trip
Two Travelling Art Studios will tour the UK through the year, bringing National Gallery workshops and learning activities to 200 different communities who otherwise would not have ready access to them.
NG200: Jeremy Deller’s Triumph of Art
Jeremy Deller will be a fixture of the NG200 celebrations
A national public art commission, celebrating 200 years of the National Gallery – showing how festivals are a part of art, culture and civic-life, and how art and artists can be catalysts of collaboration and joy.
Worldwide
NG200: 200 Creators
Collaboration with 200 social media creators from across the UK, celebrating 200 years of the Gallery being a beacon of creativity.
NG200: Behind the Scenes
A new online film series that takes viewers behind the scenes of the National Gallery creating a continuous micro documentary that engages people with key aspects of the NG200 programme.
NG200: 200 Paintings for 200 Years
The Gallery opens the door to the entire history of a painting, in one place, sharing the wealth of the National Gallery’s research, digitally available for everyone, everywhere, anytime.
NG200: The Virtual Gallery
A new, large-scale digital Gallery experience for the Bicentenary, available via the National Gallery website
The Gallery in London
NG200: Summer on the Square
A festival in Trafalgar Square, programmed with and for children, young people and their families to engage new and diverse audiences. Designed to unlock the nation’s creativity and bring the collection to the streets of Westminster.
NG200: Van Gogh
An exhibition featuring a stunning array of the artist’s most important and well-loved works alongside paintings from private collections never seen in public before. The first major Van Gogh show in the UK since 2010, it promises to be the most spectacular EVER, and comes exactly 100 years after the Gallery acquired Van Gogh’s Chair and Sunflowers (both painted in 1888).
NG200: 14th century Siena
The first ever full-scale exhibition of early Sienese art outside Italy. An opportunity to see some of Europe’s earliest and most exquisite paintings ever produced. Be there for the beginning of art history…
NG200: National Gallery Stories
The story of the National Gallery and the people who have played a part in its 200-year history, delivered through a series of digital experiences that will create new personal connections with the collection.
NG200: Welcome
A suite of capital projects designed by a team led by Selldorf Architects that will benefit all those who visit the Gallery. Sensitive interventions to our building will reshape the National Gallery for its third century and the next generation of visitors. A transformation of the Sainsbury Wing entrance, the public realm and visitor amenities along with a new Members’ House and a new Research Centre, will provide a more inspiring and sustainable experience for the millions of visitors every year. The institution is also planning to transform our Learning Centre, allowing the Gallery to be far more ambitious with their educational offer and become the nation’s art classroom.
NG200: The Main Event
A dramatic redisplay of the entire National Gallery collection. This will be visitor-focussed with a new emphasis on thematic displays, pairings and surprising ‘artistic conversations’ within a broadly chronological framework.
And finally….
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (August 1888) Credit: National Gallery, London
NG200: Sunflowers Surprise
Some very exciting plans for one of the Gallery’s most popular and well-loved paintings – Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888) – as part of the national anniversary celebrations. More to come soon….
