Between Women: Travelling Gallery returns with new exhibition

Travelling Gallery is delighted to be partnering with the University of St Andrews this February to present the exhibition Between Women.

The exhibition features the work of Franki Raffles, Sylvia Grace Borda, Sandra George, Carolyn Scott and Niu Weiyu.

Between Women takes images made by the photographer Franki Raffles from her base in Edinburgh during the 1980s and 1990s as a starting point to explore relationships between gender, labour, education, care and activism in documentary photography since the 1950s in Scotland and internationally. Raffles’ photographs will appear alongside images by Sylvia Grace Borda, Sandra George, Carolyn Scott and Niu Weiyu which together illuminate how gender is produced and reproduced through workplaces, housing, healthcare, and particularly schools, playgrounds and nurseries, across urban and rural landscapes.

In examining the relationships and power structures between women, this exhibition takes inspiration from two projects by Raffles. The first is a trip Raffles made in 1984–85 to the Soviet Union and Asia, including an extended period in China, during which her concern with women at work crystallised.

The second, Picturing Women, was part of a 1988–89 educational initiative organised by Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, aimed at helping young people analyse photographs, for which Raffles studied the working relationships between women at a school. These two projects provide a framework through which connections and comparisons with Niu Weiyu, Carolyn Scott, Sandra George and Sylvia Grace Borda’s photographs emerge.

One of the few women photographers to gain professional recognition in twentieth-century China, Niu worked for state-run media organisations and produced a large number of photographs that portray women’s roles as workers throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Carolyn Scott’s documentary photographs images of children and families in Newcastle’s Rye Hill area where she lived between 1967-68 observe the relationships and socialisation forged through play, but also the effects of deindustrialisation on the community.

Sandra George’s photographs of Edinburgh during the 1980s and 1990s attest to the importance of community educational groups and spaces in activism and organising, alongside public demonstrations and gatherings.

Sylvia Grace Borda’s studies of schools, leisure centres and nurseries in the New Town of East Kilbride reflect on the complex legacies of post-1945 Welfare State architecture from the perspective of the early 2000s.

Together, these photographs highlight the possibilities for solidarity between women in sites and spaces spanning the local and the global, but also the importance of recognising differences and intersectional identities that account for the constructs of gender, sexuality, race, disability and class in activism and organising.

Launching in Edinburgh at the Community Wellbeing Centre on Monday 17 February from 11am to 5pm, the exhibition will tour throughout the week visiting the following locations:

• Tuesday 18 February, 10am – 4pm – Glasgow Women’s Library
• Wednesday 19 February, 10am – 4pm – Dundee International Women’s Centre
• Thursday 20 February, 10am – 4pm – Fluthers Car Park, Cupar
• Friday 21 February, 10am – 4pm – East Sands Leisure Centre, St Andrews

Between Women is curated by Vivian K. Sheng and Catherine Spencer, with support from the University of St Andrews Impact and Innovation Fund.

Culture and Communities Convener, Councillor Val Walker said: “It’s brilliant to see the Travelling Gallery return for 2025.

“It’s crucial that art and culture is as accessible to as many people as possible. I’m proud that through our ongoing support of the Travelling Gallery, and the recent increased Creative Scotland investment, art is brought straight into the hearts of towns and cities across Scotland. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to visit the exhibition, bringing together work which illuminates how gender is produced and reproduced through workplaces.

“Here in Edinburgh, we’re clear that that our residents should be able to easily access a variety of cultural activities, and this exhibition brings art closer to people’s communities.”

Louise Briggs, Curator, Travelling Gallery said: “We’re delighted to be working with Vivian, Catherine, and the University of St Andrews to present this exhibition.

“We’re looking forward to discussing the work of each artist with our visitors, who we believe will have their own stories and experiences to share that chime with many of the references (and local sites) found in the work on display.”

With thanks to the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums, Edinburgh Napier University, Franki Raffles Estate, Craigmillar Now, Gaofan Photography Museum, Sylvia Grace Borda and Carolyn Scott.

Travelling Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in a bus. Since 1978 it has been bringing exhibitions to communities throughout Scotland. We recognise that art can change lives and we create fair conditions and remove barriers to allow access and engagement to audiences in their own familiar surroundings.

The gallery space offers an open and welcoming environment for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to discover and enjoy contemporary art. Over the past forty years, Travelling Gallery has brought innovative exhibitions to every part of Scotland reaching hundreds of thousands of visitors and school pupils.

Travelling Gallery is a ‘not for profit’ organisation, regularly funded by Creative Scotland and supported by the City of Edinburgh Council.

For more information, please vist the Travelling Gallery website.        

The gallery has ramp access for wheelchairs; hearing loop and will have large print format exhibition interpretation.

Artist Biographies

Sylvia Grace Borda is an artist working with photography, net art, video installation, and eco-art, who has undertaken projects in Canada, Finland, Northern Ireland, Latvia, Scotland, Ethiopia and Taiwan. Her artwork is concerned with establishing systems of public understanding that underpin literacy, advocacy, and action to conserve the built and natural environments. In Scotland, she focused on New Town architecture in EK Modernism (2005–10) and A Holiday in Glenrothes (2008), and created an edible photo artwork, the Lumsden Biscuit (2016–17). Her roles at Queen’s University Belfast (2008–10); University of Salford (2011), and University of Stirling (2012–15) have focused on visual arts and social histories, digital engagement and innovation. In 2023, she received the Mozilla Foundation Rise 25 award in recognition of her transformative media arts practice to democratize the web for communities. Exhibitions include National Galleries of Scotland, RIAS, Street Level Photoworks, and The Lighthouse, Glasgow.

Sandra George (1957–2013) was an Edinburgh-based social documentary photographer, multi-disciplinary artist, and a community worker in Craigmillar. George studied Photography at Napier University, Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, and Community Education at The University of Edinburgh. For over 30 years she worked extensively as a freelance photographer for organisations and publications including the Sentinel, Tollcross Community Newspaper, Shelter, Craigmillar Festival News, and Craigmillar Chronicle, and taught photography and art to communities across Edinburgh. She started working in community development in Wester Hailes in the 1980s, and in Craigmillar from the 1990s, and was an integral member of initiatives including McGovan house, the Thistle Foundation, and the Craigmillar Arts Centre. Alongside a commitment to community work, anti-racism and social justice, George’s photographs document children at play and their educational and leisure environments. George’s archive is held at Craigmillar Now, a community-led arts and heritage organisation in Craigmillar.

Franki Raffles (1955–1994) was a feminist photographer specialising in social documentary. Raffles studied philosophy at the University of St Andrews from 1973–1977, where she was an active member of the Women’s Liberation Movement. After experimenting with photography while living on the Isle of Lewis, she moved to Edinburgh in 1983, and started documenting women at work, as well as organising and campaigning. Raffles frequently collaborated with Edinburgh District Council’s Women’s Committee, including on the project To Let You Understand: Women’s Working Lives in Edinburgh (1989) Zero Tolerance campaign against domestic violence in the early 1990s. She travelled widely throughout her career, including extended trips to Asia and the Soviet Union. Raffles’ work is currently the focus of a major exhibition Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Her archive is held at the University of St Andrews.

Carolyn Scott is an artist working in photography, film and installation. She was raised in Edinburgh and now lives in Cupar, Fife. Carolyn lived in the Rye Hill district of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the late 1960s where, in the spring and early summer of 1968, using a twin-lens Rollieflex camera, she photographed the immediate area in which she lived. Her  Rye Hill Social Documentary Photography Collection images were unseen for nearly 40 years until she revisited them during her studies at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee University, where she received a BA and MFA. Carolyn’s work has been shown in the Cupar Arts Festival, St Andrews Photography Festival, Royal Scottish Academy and The Centre for Theology and Inquiry, Princeton. The Rye Hill Social Documentary Photography Collection is now held at the University of St Andrews. 

Niu Weiyu (牛畏予) (1927–2020) worked as a photojournalist and photographer for North China Pictorial, Southwest Pictorial, and the News Photography Bureau. She later joined the Xinhua News Agency, where she worked for various branches from the 1950s to the 1980s. Weiyu was one of the few women photographers during this period, who were often assigned to feature women workers, such as the first women pilots, as well as public figures and officials in the Chinese Communist Party, and she travelled extensively throughout her career.

Vivian K. Sheng is an art historian working on contemporary Chinese and East Asian art in transnational contexts and an assistant professor in contemporary art at the University of Hong Kong. In Fall 2022, she was a Global Fellow hosted by the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews. Her research investigates the intricate interrelations between women, domesticity and art practices in contexts of ever more intensified cross-border movements and exchanges, provoking reflections on notions of identity, home and belonging beyond the territorial fixity of natio-state. Relevant issues are explored in her forthcoming monograph book— The Arts of Homemaking: Women, Migration and Transnational East Asia. Her writings have appeared in ASAP/Journal, Art Journal, PARSE Journal,Third Text,  Sculpture Journal, Yishu and INDEX JOURNAL.

Catherine Spencer is an art historian at the University of St Andrews. She is currently working on a book entitled Abstract Subjects: Art, Borders and ‘Britain’, and co-editing Grassroots Artmaking: Political Struggle and Activist Art in the UK, 1960–Present with Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani and Amy Tobin (Bloomsbury, forthcoming). Her writing on Franki Raffles has been published in Art History (2022) and the catalogue for the 2024–5 exhibition Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. In 2021, she co-curated Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism with Caroline Gausden, Kirsten Lloyd, and Nat Raha at Glasgow Women’s Library. Her essays have appeared in Art History, Art Journal, ARTMargins, Tate Papers, Parallax and Oxford Art Journal.