London's National Gallery Publishes Recommendations From Citizens' Assembly

London's National Gallery has published the recommendations of a group of ordinary members of the public, who want the museum to earn more income, guide visitors more closely and tell more of the story behind its paintings.

The group is called NG Citizens. It is a citizens' assembly, a panel of people chosen to reflect the wider public and asked to work through a question over several meetings. The assembly had 55 participants, who took part in five sessions between November 2025 and March 2026, according to The Art Newspaper, which reported on the publication on 9 November 2026.

Their brief included how to bring in new, diverse and loyal audiences. Their recommendations, set out in the gallery's final report, cover four main areas.

First, the assembly recommended that the gallery embrace and grow commercial opportunities, meaning ways of earning money beyond public funding and ticket sales.

Second, it recommended using technology to support personalised itineraries, or tailored routes through the galleries. The group wanted this to help under-represented groups in particular.

Third, it recommended that the gallery be more open about its wider history, about who is represented in its collection, and about the context behind each work.

Fourth, the assembly said the collection urgently needs to be a true reflection of the UK. That is the group's own phrase, and it sits at the heart of the report.

The work does not stop with the report. NG Citizens will move into a second phase, called the Citizens' Panel, made up of three separate groups, or cohorts, running from 2026 to 2030. The panel will meet three times a year. It will work with gallery staff to shape the changes and check progress against the assembly's recommendations.

The National Gallery has said the recommendations will directly inform how it welcomes visitors, how it shares its paintings and how it plans for the future. Those choices affect everyday things, from how people find their way around the rooms to what they learn from the labels on the wall.

For visitors, the next few years will show whether these ideas turn into changes at the front desk and in the galleries. For the staff who will carry them out, the panel gives a regular place to test and review them.