National Portrait Gallery: insights not assumptions
Our challenge
How might we develop a shared interpretive approach that draws on many years of detailed cross-department work, using audience research to open up new ways of thinking?
Reframing narratives
The National Portrait Gallery is both for and about people. From Katherine Parr to Martin Parr, it holds the stories of those who have made – and are making – Britain what it is today. The Inspiring People project has transformed the Gallery into a place where visitors can explore important and evolving ideas surrounding national identity, society and culture to reflect on what it is that binds us together.
Through the collections, and their conspicuous gaps, the new rehang explores narratives, themes, stories, people, voices and perspectives that have traditionally been under-represented or not represented at all.
Listening, sharing and challenging
Our involvement began mid-way through the project, stepping into the stream of many years of thinking. We began by running four iterative workshops with Gallery staff from different departments, developing interpretive principles and ideas from the perspective of the target audience groups.
Reflecting audience insights
In these workshops, 6 years of audience surveys, evaluations and ideas were distilled and re-presented with the purpose of developing robust interpretive criteria that could be used Gallery-wide for evaluation and assessment. The workshops were highly-productive and the discussions re-affirmed and refined interpretation aspirations, aims and outcomes.
Following this process, NPG re-evaluated everything, from language and terminologies to ideas, from methodologies to stories and techniques. We were invited to participate in some sessions as critical friends, and the outputs fed into the gallery designs. The National Portrait Gallery reopened to the public in summer 2023.
Catalysing change
Ultimately, the new Interpretation Plan opened up the institution and placed the visitor at its heart. This working process served to catalyse the NPG to make openness more fundamental to their approach. To that end, the new interpretation:
Allows room for new voices (from the community, from artists, from other experts) in order to create a wider dialogue.
Accentuates active thinking through open-ended questioning.
Reveals transparency in approach and tone of voice, making clear what is known and what is not known.
Output
National Portrait Gallery Inspiring People redevelopment, Interpretation Plan, 2018