as they discuss Black presence in British portraiture and the Archive Survey

Project at the National Portrait Gallery

HYBRID SESSSION: ONLINE AND IN-PERSON

Join our speakers from the National Portrait Gallery as they discuss Black presence in British portraiture and the Archive Survey Project at the National Portrait Gallery.

The Archive Survey Project

The National Portrait Gallery "launched a project to identify, and find the identities of, sitters from the global majority in historic British portraiture using the Gallery’s Heinz Archive and Library (https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/research/archive/british-portraits-records). This relates to all sitters who were racialized as ‘other than White’ by the society they lived in (particularly those of African and Asian descent). The Archive is home to over 1 million photographic records of portraits from public and private collections ranging in date from the 13th century to the present day." Introducing the Archive Survey Project (https://britishportraits.org/blog/introducing-the-archive-survey-project/), Understanding British Portraits, October 2023.

Check out this article for more details on this insightful project:

"Rare Portrait Sparks Identity Quest (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2rwpmwkggo)," BBC News, 12 April 2026.

About the Speakers:

Sarah Okpokam was Project Curator on the Archive Survey Project at the National Portrait Gallery (2024-2026). S

Philip Sidney sits on the Board of Management of Penshurst Place, home to the Sidney family for over 450 years.

Dr Charlotte Bolland is Senior Curator, Research and 16" century collections at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Since 2023, Charlotte has been supporting the Gallery's Archive Survey Project which aims to make information about images of people from the Global Majority held within the Gallery's archive resources more accessible to researchers.

We are delighted to be partnering once again with Hull Museums to offer attendees at our public lectures the chance to visit Wilberforce House Museum next door before joining us for the event.

Lectures will begin at 4 pm and will take place at our home in Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE. We are very grateful to Hull Museums for their generous support of the Wilberforce Institute’s public lecture programme, and we hope many of you will take the opportunity to explore their fascinating exhibitions beforehand.

Refreshments will be available from 3:45 pm, and we warmly invite you to stay afterwards for a glass of wine and the chance to chat with our speaker.

A limited number of in-person tickets are available. If you are unable to join us in Hull, you can still enjoy the lecture online – please select the appropriate ticket type when booking.

Description supplied by the event organiser.