Bree Pickering to lead National Portrait Gallery

New director Bree Pickering wants the National Portrait Gallery to be a place for conversation about the story of Australians.

Bree Pickering, previously director of Murray Art Museum Albury in NSW, has been appointed director of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Picture: Mark Mohell

As she prepares to move from a regional gallery in NSW to run one of the national collections on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, Bree Pickering says she wants to be part of a national conversation about Australia’s people and history.

Ms Pickering, 40, has been director of Murray Art Museum Albury for the past six years and in April becomes director of the National Portrait Gallery, the institution charged with telling the story of Australia through portraits of people who have shaped the nation.

“Art offers a way into the conversation,” Ms Pickering said.

“I think what’s really important in a national institution is that it’s listening, reflecting and responding, and staying in the moment.

“The national institutions, and the portrait gallery in particular, have a role to play in absorbing that and processing it, and bringing it into public view.”

Ms Pickering was formerly director of Vox Populi, a contemporary art space in Philadelphia, and was the cultural program manager at the Australian embassy in Washington during Kim Beazley’s tenure as ambassador.

There, her exhibitions included a show of portraits by Australian Defence Force photographers of Australian personnel in service in Afghanistan. Other exhibitions featured work by Australian artists including Angelica Mesiti, Daniel Boyd and Tim Silver.

“It was a really important space for cultural diplomacy, a way to engage with our colleagues across the world,” she said of the Australian embassy. “I worked with the Australian War Memorial, and we also showed contemporary art, both First Nations and non-First Nations.

“It was a dynamic program and very well regarded in the local art scene in DC.”

Since returning to Australia Ms Pickering has been director of MAMA, one of the leading regional galleries in NSW, whose new building opened in 2015.

NPG chair Penny Fowler said Ms Pickering was an ambitious and transformative leader.

“Bree’s appointment marks an exciting new chapter for the NPG as it enters its 25th year, and we know she will bring energy, ideas, an appetite for innovation and a passion for growth and expansion into this important role,” Ms Fowler said.

The NPG has a collection valued at $42.9m and receives $12.5m a year in government funding.

Ms Pickering succeeds as director Karen Quinlan, who departed the NPG last year to become chief executive of Arts Centre Melbourne.