Scottish Government Announces Additional £2m Funding for National Portrait Gallery Renovation

Submitted by edg on Fri, 18 Mar '11 9.48pm

The Scottish Government announced a further  £2 million yesterday for the refurbishment of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

The gallery closed for renovation in 2008 and is due to have its grand opening on St Andrew's Day.

This video from the Scottish Government includes a few shots of the gallery construction work, which will include better education space, twice the space for the cafe, and opening up the building "to its former self" to creating more exhibition space for the gallery's extensive collections.

Interviews are with Minister for Culture Fiona Hyslop and James Holloway, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, who promised that the new gallery will appear "very familiar and very modern".

The £2 million funding comes from the Scottish Government's Culture capital budget for 2010-11.

The Scottish Government announced funding of £5.1 million towards the redevelopment of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2007.