The National Gallery's birthday wish: social media fame for its Creative Collaborators

The National Gallery’s shortlisted content creators all met to learn more about the museum and its collection at the Ideas Lab event in 2023 © Ellie Kurttz, courtesy of the National Gallery
The National Gallery has gifted itself 200 powerful, social media-savvy friends for its birthday. The 200 Creators network is a list of international influencers, chosen from an open call, who are popular on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Of these, it has picked 20 content creators from across the UK to become “Creative Collaborators”, and each has been given a £4,000 stipend to create videos that will be released on the creators’ and gallery’s social media accounts from 2 July. The group had exclusive access to the museum, its team and collection to inspire their new videos. Here, we meet four of the creative collaborators and find out what they have made.
Christian Brighty © Ben Wulf
I'm a comedian and make videos about romantic period dramas—Poldark, Bridgerton, Pride and Prejudice—basically anything where men from the past take themselves too seriously. My live show about the Regency's most notorious rake, Lord Christian Brighty, is being turned into a sitcom for BBC Radio 4.
I adore any opportunity to be playful and silly in historical places. I also think there is an unfair perception among the public that artistic spaces are overly serious. Part of widening access to art must involve opposing these perceptions of snobbery. All responses to art are valid, including me galloping on a hobby horse.
We had to find the right balance between funny ideas we could film in the space, which would also not damage my wellbeing and reputation, or any of the priceless art. Our video on George Stubbs’s Whistlejacket (around 1762) is, I think, my favourite thing I have ever filmed.
We both work as Part 2 architectural assistants at an architecture firm, and we're currently working towards our chartership to become fully qualified architects.
We were excited about the chance to foster cross-cultural dialogue and deepen the understanding of art through the unique lens of African mythology, while appreciating the stories from paintings within the National Gallery that have inspired us—and continue to do so.
We have completed two paintings based on African mythology folktales, which share thematic similarities with two paintings in the galllery: Luca Giordano's Perseus turning Phineas and his Followers to Stone (around 1660) and Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-23). We have also recorded a podcast episode with one of the National Gallery's educators all about mythology, art, culture and human experiences.
Howard Lee Courtesy of the artist
I am an artist and social media content creator. The main focus of my work is to use drawing and painting in the creation of video for an international audience, the visual aspect helping to cross language barriers.
The opportunity to share the collection of the National Gallery through my work is hopefully one that will inspire people who might not have the chance to see the artwork in person.
One of my main video series is "Simple to Artist" in which the same subject is drawn under four headings: Basic, Simple, Better, Artist. In most of the videos the subject becomes more detailed or conceptually different at each level. I have selected five subjects from paintings in the National Gallery collection and drawn them in this style. Hopefully the end result will provide a brief glimpse into the unique eye of the artist!
Being able to play with mud every day was a childhood dream that I have made reality by being a potter. It has taken me on some wild adventures too, such as being a finalist on TV's The Great Pottery Throw Down and recently displaying ceramics at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Clay helped me recover from a life-changing accident, and I feel that in the modern world pottery is a fantastic craft for mindfulness and wellbeing. Just like a visit to the National Gallery— both invite you to put down your technology, disconnect from the stress of daily life and reconnect to imagination and your own creativity.
I was inspired to recreate four pieces of pottery in paintings at the National Gallery. The main reference is Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of Pan (1636): the vase I make is perhaps the most complex piece of pottery seen in a painting at the museum, and I throw it all in one piece to give my Instagram reel an extra bit of celebratory fun.

source