Former global Frieze director to head up National Portrait Gallery

Victoria Siddall, the former global director of Frieze art fairs in London and New York, has been appointed the new director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), London, following Nicholas Cullinan’s departure to become director of the British Museum in June.

Cullinan left after leading the institution since 2015 and overseeing a major redevelopment of the venue, which reopened in autumn 2023.

Siddall has over 20 years’ experience of leadership positions in the art world, both in the public and private sectors. Most recently, she co-founded Gallery Climate Coalition and Murmur, two charities which drive environmental responsibility in the art and music sectors. Over the past two years she has also worked with Tate in a strategic advisory capacity.

During her time as global director of Frieze, she founded Frieze Masters – an addition to the contemporary art fair that displays anything from ancient objects and Old Master works to late 20^th-century art. In addition to the contemporary and masters counterparts of Frieze London, she also led the art fair in New York and Los Angeles. Siddall secured the launch of Frieze Seoul before she became a non-executive director of Frieze in March 2022. 

She is a trustee of Gallery Climate Coalition, an international community of arts organisations working to reduce the art sector’s environmental impacts, and the Ampersand Foundation, a UK grant-awarding trust dedicated to supporting the visual arts. Until recently she was also a trustee of the NPG.

Permanent directors of the National Portrait Gallery, London

• 1857 Sir George Scharf
• 1895 Sir Lionel Cust
• 1909 Sir Charles John Holmes
• 1917 James Milner
• 1927 Sir Henry Hake
• 1951 Charles Kingsley Adams
• 1964 Sir David Piper
• 1967 Sir Roy Strong
• 1974 John Hayes
• 1994 Charles Saumarez Smith
• 2002 Sandy Nairne
• 2015 Dr Nicholas Cullinan
• 2024 Victoria Siddall

Siddall remains chair of the board of Studio Voltaire, a contemporary art gallery in south London. She guided the organisation through a capital redevelopment campaign, increasing the space dedicated to artist studios and public programmes.

Taking over from interim director Michael Elliott, Siddall will be the NPG’s 13th director.

David Ross, chair of the trustees of the NPG, said: “I am delighted to welcome Victoria Siddall as the new director of the National Portrait Gallery. Her strengths as a cultural leader are considerable, as is her knowledge of the art world, understanding of audiences and international profile. I know that she has the vision and determination to build on our recent successes and lead the next stage of the gallery’s development, and I greatly look forward to working with her.”

Victoria Siddall, incoming director of the NPG, said: “I’m truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead the National Portrait Gallery, a museum that holds the world’s greatest collection of portraits and is unique in being about people and for people. The art within its walls tells stories of human achievement 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 NPG’s history, following the recent reopening and Inspiring People project that the team delivered so flawlessly under Nicholas Cullinan’s leadership. The perfect stage has been built and I am thrilled to work with my new colleagues, the museum's trustees and supporters and of course the artists, as we look to the future and embark on a new chapter.”

Siddall will assume her new post this autumn.