We would like to thank Rebecca Starr for the contribution to this article.

What do you expect to see when visiting the National Gallery in London? A neatly curated collection of landscape painting? Or a selection of the gallery’s must-see highlights – a veritable who’s-who of art history?

Both are reasonable expectations – but why? What does this tell us about the purpose and priorities of the National Gallery? This is a question underpinning NG Citizens , a recently announced initiative which sees the National Gallery promising to put people from across the UK “at the heart of its decision-making”.

This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

Launching this autumn, NG C

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