A batch of cupcakes inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s sunflowers and a series of naked pottery figures influenced by Nicolas Poussin are among the objects to feature in social media videos designed to banish the National Gallery’s “stuffy” image.
The central London gallery is celebrating its 200th anniversary by establishing a network of 200 creators with huge social media followings to promote its collection to people it has previously struggled to reach.
The group is spearheaded by a group of 20 influencers who have each been given £4,000 to create a series of videos which they began sharing with their followers last month.
Lizzie Acker is one of the creators taking part
They include an assortment of artists, comedians and historians, as well as former contestants on television programmes including the BBC’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off and The Great Pottery Throw Down.
Ellie Wyant, social media and community manager for the National Gallery, said that youngsters were more likely to be persuaded to visit by authentic videos created by influencers they admired, than “try-hard” attempts from the gallery.
“A lot of people see art collections as maybe quite stuffy or boring. They question what art that was made hundreds of years ago has to do with them now. We are aiming to show people that our paintings can be just as relevant as they were 400 years ago,” Wyant said.
“It can’t be denied how much they trust there is for certain content creators. Their audiences really do see them as their peers.”
Alice Loxton made a video on the roof of the building
She added that the venerable National Gallery, which is also sharing the videos on its own social media channels, was in direct competition for visitors with rival galleries with a younger, more accessible image such as the Tate Modern.
The Great British Bake Off competitor Lizzie Acker a neurodiversity advocate who is dyslexic and has the reading age of a nine-year-old, said that her preconceptions about art galleries were changed when she visited the gallery to prepare. It was the first time she had been to a gallery.
“People don’t understand the anxiety that comes with reading all the gallery text while being surrounded by hundreds of people. You like you are in everyone’s way. And all the noise can feel really discombobulating,” she said.
“But finding out that you can borrow large-font textbooks and wear headphones made me realise how approachable it is.”
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Acker, 39, said that she was inspired to make themed cupcakes and focaccia bread after discovering that Van Gogh created his art to share with his friends.
“I struggled to relate to some of the big themes behind the artworks but it clicked when I learnt that about Van Gogh,” she said. “My way of doing that is through baking everyone’s favourite cake. So when my sister comes round, I make mocha doughnuts and my friends love my lemon drizzle.”
Alice Loxton, 28, a historian with 2.5 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, gained access to the roof of the gallery, which overlooks Trafalgar Square, for a video about the building itself. A second short video focused on the mosaics on its floor.
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“I was inspired to open people’s eyes to the fact that the whole building is a piece of art,” she said.
Loxton, whose second book Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, was published last week, said that her ambition was to inform her followers about historical stories and facts that had not been told via social media before.
“It can bring in an entirely new audience of young people and those who are on the fringes of visiting the gallery but might walk past every day and never quite register it,” she added.
“The creators include people into fashion or interior design that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with the gallery and are helping to reshape people’s perceptions, which is wonderful because it really is a national treasure.”