For the first time in history, a woman will direct the National Portrait Gallery: she is Victoria Siddall

For the first time in its history, London ’s National Portrait Gallery will be headed by a woman: the British museum’s new director is in fact Victoria Siddall, appointed yesterday by the institution’s Board of Trustees. The new director will take office in the fall of 2024. Siddall has a long track record at the helm of institutions in the art world, both in the public and private sectors: her most recent experiences include her role as co-founder, between 2020 and 2021, of Gallery Climate Coalition and Murmur, two associations that promote responsibility to the environment in the art and music sectors. In addition, she has worked for the past two years at another major London museum, the Tate. She was also global director of Frieze, with her founding the Frieze Masters fair and then leading the Freize fairs in London, New York and Los Angeles and launching the one in Seoul. She also served as trustee of the National Portrait Gallery between July 2023 and August 2024.

Siddall, class of 1977, graduated from the University of Bristol with degrees in English Literature and Philosophy. After starting her career at Christie’s in 2000, she joined Frieze in 2004 where she first worked as head of development, after which she launched Frieze Masters in 2012 and served as director of the fair’s first edition. In 2015, she became global director of Frieze fairs in London and New York. In 2019 she oversaw the development of Frieze Los Angeles at Paramount Studios, and in January 2021 she became Board Director of Frieze: in this position she was responsible for the launch of Frieze Seoul. In parallel, she served on the board of Studio Voltaire, one of London’s leading nonprofit galleries, which organizes an annual public program of exhibitions and performances. She also served as chair of the Board of Trustees of Studio Voltaire. In 2021 she launched the Artists for ClientEarth project, which raised $6.5 million through donations of work, later sold, by artists such as Cecily Brown, Rashid Johnson, Antony Gormley and Beatriz Milhazes. As director and founder of Murmur, she oversaw the development and fundraising for the new association, raising more than £1 million from art and music organizations. Siddall is the thirteenth director in the institute’s history and succeeds Nicholas Cullinan, who left the National Portrait Gallery to head the British Museum last June after directing the portrait museum for thirteen years. The museum has since been directed on an interim basis by Michael Elliott.

“I am delighted to welcome Victoria Siddall as the new director of the National Portrait Gallery,” said David Ross, chair of the museum’s Board of Trustees. “Her strength as a cultural leader is considerable, as is her knowledge of the art world, her understanding of the public, and her international profile. I know she has the vision and determination to continue to strengthen our recent successes and to lead the next phase of the Gallery’s development, and I look forward to working with her.”

“I am truly honored to have the opportunity to lead the National Portrait Gallery,” says Victoria Siddall, “a museum that holds the world’s largest collection of portraits and is unique in its being about people and for people. The art enclosed within its walls tells stories of humanity’s achievements and what unites us as a society, inspiring and shaping our view of the world and our place in it. This is perhaps the most exciting time in the National Portrait Gallery’s history, following the recent reopening and the Inspiring People project that the team delivered so precisely under the leadership of Nicholas Cullinan. The perfect stage has been built and I’m really excited to work with my new colleagues, the museum’s trustees and supporters, and of course the artists as we look toward the future and venture into a new chapter.”

“Victoria Siddall will bring a wealth of experience to this role, and I am delighted that the National Portrait Gallery is making history by appointing its first woman as director,” says Lisa Nandy, Britain’s secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport. “Her leadership will guide the Gallery from strength to strength, developing it following last year’s reopening, and I am excited to see what she and the National Portrait Gallery team have in store for us in the coming years.”

For the first time in history, a woman will direct the National Portrait Gallery: she is Victoria Siddall

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