The National Gallery

An immersive digital exhibition bringing 200 years of National Gallery stories to life

A photo of a large L-shaped video wall displaying the painting Dido building Carthage by J W M Turner on the left and Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba by Claude on the right. Three people stand in front of the screen watching the animation.
NG Stories – a digital exhibition celebrating 200 years of the National Gallery

In 2022 we were commissioned by the National Gallery to develop a strategy for an exhibition to celebrate the people, places and stories behind the collection. After developing the initial approach we came back to the project in 2024 to design and deliver a room for the exhibition: NG Stories: Making a National Gallery

Sketches showing the original concepts for the room we created. The first shows a camera moving forward through a space containing a timeline of artefacts from the gallery's history. The second shows the large scale of the installation in comparison to the size of a visitor allowing. The 4th shows clusters of content on the screen at the same time to allow visitors to focus on the parts of the story that interest them the most. The 4th shows an immersive moment were a photograph of Manod Mine takes over the whole screen.
Concept sketches for the immersive exhibition space

The exhibition wove together archival material, oral histories, and interactive installations. Room 2 explored themes ranging from the founding collection to the wartime evacuations, from conservation breakthroughs to the stories of the guards, cleaners and curators who know the building most intimately.

A photo of a large L-shaped video wall displaying the painting The National Gallery when at Mr J. J. Angerstein's House, Pall Mall by Frederick Mackenzie. The painting depicts the interior of the National Gallery in its original location on Pall Pall. Three people stand in front of the screen watching the animation.
The exhibition in situ at the National Gallery

We ran a series of workshops and research sessions with the Gallery and with key audience groups to surface the stories that mattered most. These sessions shaped the narrative architecture of the exhibition and ensured the content felt authentic and deeply connected to the institution and the visitors. We also spent time with the Gallery archivists understanding the artefacts we could highlight through visual storytelling.

A photo taken during an in-person workshop session at the National Gallery. 3 people sit around a table. On the table are worksheets, post-it notes and pens.
Collaborative workshop session with the Gallery
A photo taken during a visit to the National Gallery Archive. In the middle of the photo is Ralph Nicholson Wornum's open diary from the 1800s. Both pages contain hand written script capturing the daily happenings of the gallery.
Viewing artefacts in the National Gallery archive
A photo of a large L-shaped video wall displaying the orignal blueprints for the design of the building in Trafalgar Square overlayed with photography of the same building details today. Two people stand in front of the screen watching the animation.
The exhibition in situ at the National Gallery

NG Stories: Making a National Gallery ran from 4th October 2024 to 12th January 2025. Over its 97-day run the digital exhibition attracted 166,052 visitors.

Responsibilities
  • Research
  • Strategy
  • Concept Design
  • Design Detailing
  • Prototyping
  • Direction
  • Animation
  • Installation
Animation
Alex Amelines
Technical Drawings
Eniko Takacs
Sound Design and Composition
Nick Ryan
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