MARGATE.- Her Royal Highness received a warm welcome from members of the public on the front steps of the gallery before being introduced to Victoria Pomery OBE, Director of Turner Contemporary, John Kampfner, Chair of Turner Contemporary, and the gallery’s Trustees.

As Patron of the National Portrait Gallery, the Duchess of Cambridge toured the gallery and our current exhibition, Self: Image and Identity with Victoria Pomery, meeting Sarah Martin, Head of Exhibitions at Turner Contemporary and Pim Baxter, Acting Director of the National Portrait Gallery, with whom she discussed key works in the exhibition. As well as viewing Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s last known Self-portrait with Catharine MacLeod, Curator of Seventeenth Century Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, Her Royal Highness met with artists Trish Morrisey, John Davies and Gavin Turk, whose self-portraits are also exhibited as part of Self.

The Duchess of Cambridge was then escorted by Karen Eslea, Head of Learning and Visitor Experience at Turner Contemporary, to our Clore Learning Studio. Here, Her Royal Highness met Year Five pupils from Holy Trinity and St John’s Church of England Primary School in Margate, who were creating their own collaged self-portraits with Turner Contemporary Navigators. With the support of the gallery, the school was recently awarded ArtsMark Gold status by Arts Council England in recognition of their arts and cultural provision.

The Duchess of Cambridge also met seven local young women, who were able to provide a practical demonstration of their current project Mirroring Dialogic Portraits. Imitating the painting process of artist-in-residence Felicity Allen, the group discussed issues facing women working within the arts whilst painting portraits of each other.

Following this, Her Royal Highness met with various representatives from Thanet District Council, Kent County Council, Arts Council England, Kent Music, National Portrait Gallery, Turner Contemporary’s Craft Club, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund.

The Duchess of Cambridge then spoke with Turner Contemporary’s past and present Youth Navigators from East Kent College and Marlowe Academy and listened to two performances from the Kent County Youth Orchestra, a quarter of whom are from East Kent. The Duchess of Cambridge listened to the Orchestra play First movement from the Serenade for strings by Edward Elgar and Cheremyushki Galop by Demetri Shostakovich, arranged by Julian Milone.

Her Royal Highness’ visit concluded by meeting representatives from Turner Contemporary’s intergenerational group, Blank Canvas, who presented to the Duchess of Cambridge their exhibition, Mr Lion 14.

After visiting Turner Contemporary, the Duchess of Cambridge went onto visit Resort Studios in Cliftonville.