Art On Your Doorstep: The National Gallery in your area

The National Gallery today announces a new national touring project, The National Gallery: Art On Your Doorstep. This project will work with organisations across the UK to help share masterpieces from the nation’s collection with communities beyond Trafalgar Square. For the next three years we will be reaching all four nations of the UK, travelling to a total of 12 partners. The first four exhibition partners from June 2025 to March 2026 are Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Croydon Council, Torbay Council and Derry City & Strabane District Council. 

The National Gallery will work with these partners to create exhibitions for local communities by choosing up to 30 printed reproductions of masterpieces from the collection. Each painting will be reproduced life-sized, in fine detail and in its frame, allowing visitors the chance to look closely at the brushstrokes and discover hidden details. Outdoors and free to view, these exhibitions will entwine art with the everyday.

On the 10th of May the National Gallery opened its doors to C C Land: The Wonder of Art, a display of over 1,000 works of art, free and available to see in the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. With 'Art On Your Doorstep', some of these masterpieces will be even closer to home. Each exhibition will not only be displayed across the local community but also be shaped by it, engaging with local people, landmarks and cultural spaces. 

The first exhibition will open in Stoke-on-Trent on 4 June 2025. Fifteen printed masterpieces will be installed in an outdoor exhibition in Bethesda Gardens, opposite The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, as part of the city’s Centenary celebrations. Subsequent exhibitions in Croydon and Torquay will have specially created trails running through their town centres and highlighting local flagship heritage spaces. In Derry/Londonderry, the partnership is being used as an opportunity to share the National Gallery’s collection across the wider district with displays in the city centre, Acorn Farm and St Columb’s Park, as well as in neighbouring Strabane and beyond.

Derry City & Strabane District Council’s Head of Culture, Aeidin McCarter, said 'I’m really looking forward to the exhibition which offers a wonderful opportunity to engage local people and connect them to popular works following on from the 'National Gallery’s Art Road Trip' and the fantastic Triumph of Music led by award-winning conceptual artist Jeremy Deller in April. Derry has a creative and thriving arts community and the Council’s Museums team is delighted to work with the National Gallery to provide enriching and exciting new experiences that will provide meaningful and inspiring ways for people to relate to artists and their work.

Image credit

Photo © The National Gallery, London

Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Notes to editors

The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Bellini, Cezanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to care for and enhance the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free. 

On 10 May 2024 the National Gallery was 200 years old, and we started our Bicentenary celebration, a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination, marking two centuries of bringing people and paintings together.

Every year, the National Gallery partners with organisations and audiences across the UK in a range of different and innovative ways. We want to ensure that everyone in the UK can engage with their national collection. Over the past years we have partnered with a number of organisations through a range of projects including our flagship Masterpiece Tour, contemporary Artist-in-Residence programme, National Treasures, Visits tour and Take One Picture programme. We are always keen to hear from potential partners and explore ways in which we can engage with you and your audiences. If you are interested in partnering with us and would like more information about these exhibitions or opportunities to connect to our Learning programmes please contact: national.touring@nationalgallery.org.uk  or visit our website: nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/partnering-with-the-gallery-nationwide

More information at nationalgallery.org.uk 

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National Gallery Press Office on 020 7747 2865 or email press.external@nationalgallery.org.uk