Cities join up to take art around Scotland

The Travelling Gallery’s back on the road

Edinburgh’s Travelling Gallery is partnering with the Glasgow Women’s Library to present a new tour of art around Scotland.

The bus – which drives contemporary art to all corners of the country – will feature an exhibition of sculpture, writing and installations from Glasgow-based artist Lauren Printy Currie when it takes to the road next month.

Its Autumn 2017 tour will begin at the Glasgow Women’s Library on 17 August and take to the Capital for the Edinburgh Art Festival between 22 – 25 August, before visiting venues the length and breadth of Scotland until November, including the Orkney Isles, Highlands, and Dundee.

The exhibition derives from a residency Lauren completed at Glasgow Women’s Library where the collection and archive served as a repository from which Lauren drew material and inspiration to make a new body of work for the Travelling Gallery.

Discussing the work, Claire Craig, Curator of the Travelling Gallery, said: “Lauren Printy Currie is an exciting young artist whose investigative practice is perfectly suited to both Glasgow Women’s Library and Travelling Gallery’s unique and inspiring spaces.

“The artist has had the incredible opportunity to explore the rich resources and archive the library has to offer and produce an engaging and thought-provoking exhibition for the Travelling Gallery, considering feminist self-organising, experiences that have been marginalised and the defining principles of creating a cultural archive. It truly is a tremendous partnership and we can’t wait to see our audience respond and engage with the exhibition and archives.”

The exhibition and gallery is supported by Outset Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council.

Councillor Donald Wilson, Edinburgh’s Culture and Communities Convener, said: “Bringing art right into the heart of our towns and communities, the Travelling Gallery is committed to making culture accessible to everyone. Its beautifully creative use of the inside of a bus never fails to delight visitors. 

“For fans of contemporary Scottish art, this new collaboration with Lauren Printy Currie and the Glasgow Women’s Library will be right up your street – literally. From Edinburgh to Glasgow to the rest of Scotland, the gallery encourages access to culture in our communities.”

Adele Patrick, Lifelong Learning and Creative Development Manager at Glasgow Women’s Library, added: “This opportunity to work with a remarkable artist, with the legendary Travelling Gallery and take GWL museum and archive on tour really is fulfilling a dream we have harboured for years.

“Lauren Printy Currie has taken on the challenge of digesting our huge, eclectic collections and generating work that will be seen by thousands as it travels the length and breadth of Scotland. This has been a fantastically productive partnership and residency and we are excited about all the ways the work and the innovative programmes we have devised that are linked to it will inspire audiences, and learners nationwide.”