Celebrating 200 years of the National Gallery
Words by Emily Martin
National Gallery Bicentenary: NG200
May 2024 – May 2025
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
ON 10 MAY 2024 the National Gallery will be 200 years old, and to mark two centuries of bringing people and paintings together it will celebrate both its past and future with a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination.
An ambitious programme of events and exhibitions – that extends from the gallery into Trafalgar Square, across the nation, and to the world – can be witnessed through a series of online and virtual experiences.
The gallery is making it easier than ever to interact with some of the greatest paintings in the world: from seeing a real work in the context of your local museum or gallery to enjoying a dive into the virtual history of the gallery’s collection, everyone can find new ways to connect with art.
Helping to kick off the celebration is National Treasures: 12 simultaneous exhibitions opening on the same day – 10 May 2024 – at a dozen museums across the 12 regions of the UK’s four nations, and each centred around a national treasure. As a result, more than half of the UK’s population will be within an hour’s journey of a National Gallery masterpiece.
Other highlights include NG200: Art Road Trip, which will see two travelling art studios touring the UK through the year, bringing National Gallery workshops and learning activities to 200 different communities that otherwise would not have ready access to them. Also, be sure to catch NG200: Jeremy Deller’s Triumph of Art, a national public art commission that shows how festivals are a part of art, culture and civic life, and how art and artists can be catalysts of collaboration and joy.
The National Gallery will close the celebrations with the latest addition to its building in Trafalgar Square: a new entrance to the Sainsbury Wing and a welcome fit for the 21st century.
To be a part of the bicentenary celebrations or to find out more about it, head over to the National Galley’s website at www.nationalgallery.org.uk.
