The National Portrait Gallery has appointed an environmental campaigner who has called for an end to fossil fuel sponsorship in the arts as its first female director.
Victoria Siddall will take up the post at the newly refurbished gallery in the autumn, taking over the position left by Nicholas Cullinan, who left for the British Museum in June.
She said: “I’m truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead the NPG, a museum that holds the world’s greatest collection of portraits and is unique in being about people and for people.”
Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, said the 46-year-old, inset, would “lead the gallery from strength to strength”.
Ms Siddall, former director of the Frieze art fair, previously helped to launch a climate change manifesto that called for a range of changes to help galleries reduce their carbon footprint. These included “keeping heating, ventilation, and air conditioning to a minimum” and shipping artworks by boat instead of by air.
The gallery has been at the centre of the debate about fossil fuel companies because of BP’s long-running sponsorship of its annual portrait award, which ended in 2022.
She will take over at the central London gallery following a multi-million pound revamp.
It was closed for three years and reopened in June last year with a rehang and Tracey Emin-designed doors that serve as the new entrance.
Ms Siddall co-founded green campaign group Murmur and said at its launch in June that organisations need to “get our houses in order” on climate change.
