London's National Portrait Gallery Closes for Three-Year Renovation

The National Portrait Gallery in London will close in July 2020 for a major renovation project titled Inspiring People, led by Jamie Fobert Architects and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The restoration, expected to conclude in 2023, will overhaul the entire building, including a reinterpretation of the collection from the Tudors to the present, new public spaces, a more welcoming entrance, and a state-of-the-art Learning Center. During the closure, the gallery will loan 300 portraits to museums across the UK, from Cornwall to Edinburgh, with partners including York Art Gallery, the Holburne Museum in Bath, National Museums Liverpool, the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Internationally, the exhibition Tudors to Windsors will tour to the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo from October to December 2020 in partnership with Fuji TV, while Love Stories, exploring portraiture, love, and relationships since the 17th century, will premiere in Australia in mid-2020 before traveling to the United States. Director Nicholas Cullinan described the project as a unique chapter, aiming to deliver a transformed gallery that serves as the nation's family album, and invited further collaborations to maximize the circulation of the national collection.