Industry
Arts & Culture
Location
South Shields, UK
Model
Masterpiece Tour pilot
Scope
29 Aug - 8 Nov 2026
The Challenge
The Voice of the Gallery pilot proved that visitors want to ask questions, not just listen to a script - but that experience lived in one place: the National Gallery's own rooms in London. As part of the Masterpiece Tour: Mignard, Pierre Mignard's ‘The Marquise de Seignelay’ (1691) travelled on loan to partner venues, arriving at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery in late August 2026. The question was whether the same conversational experience could travel with it, and feel just as native to a regional museum as it did to the National Gallery itself.
The Solution
Building on the success of the original pilot, Dwel worked with the National Gallery and South Shields Museum & Art Gallery to launch “Meet the Marquise”: visitors scan a QR code on their own phone, no app download required, and speak directly to the voice of the portrait itself - not the historical Marquise, but the painting of her, brought to life.
They press and hold the screen to ask a question and release to hear her answer, spoken aloud with karaoke-style captions, in any of nine languages. Her answers are grounded entirely in verified content supplied by the museum and the National Gallery - about herself, her setting and symbolism, what it's been like to be admired for over 300 years, and the wider Power of Posing exhibition around her - rather than general internet knowledge.
It was the first test of the format beyond a single venue, this time switching from expert curator to creative personality and designed to sit comfortably inside a smaller regional museum's own visitor experience rather than replacing it.
“As part of the Masterpiece Tour: Mignard (2026-2027), we are working with our partner venues to bring a version of the experience to visitors at participating venues while ‘The Marquise de Seignelay’ is on display. The Voice of the Gallery pilot contributes to the National Gallery's wider exploration of how emerging technologies can create new ways to access, engage with and experience the Gallery and its paintings.”
Grounded, Not Generic
The Marquise speaks confidently about her own painting, her setting and symbolism, life as a 300-year-old masterpiece, and the Power of Posing exhibition around her - and can even gesture visitors toward the room next door. On anything outside that brief - the museum's opening times and facilities, or opinions on sensitive and contested subjects - she stays factual and points visitors to a member of the local museum team, rather than guessing.
The Results
Early results from the touring exhibition at South Shields echo the original pilot - visitors asking their own questions and following their own paths of discovery.
Please check back for updated results once the exhibition has come to an end.
Looking Ahead
South Shields Museum & Art Gallery is the first stop on the year-long Masterpiece Tour. The tour then moves to The Cooper Gallery in Barnsley, The Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool and the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, and we are looking forward to exploring the impact of this new AI-powered medium across multiple settings and audiences.
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Source: The National Gallery, “The Voice of the Gallery” · South Shields Museum & Art Gallery