Tag: artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen

RESISTANCE: North Edinburgh Fights Back

NORTH EDINBURGH ACTIVISTS GO TO TOWN

NORTH Edinburgh community activists are taking their message to town this afternoon with two events taking place at art galleries in the city centre.

The events have been built around artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen’s RESISTANCE photo exhibition, which runs at the Modern 2 gallery on Belford Road until 4th January.

First up, community stalwarts Anna Hutchison and Willie Black will reflect on campaigns past and present in a panel discussion in the National Gallery at 12.45.

With so many years of campaigning experience Anna and Willie have a host of stories to share and, having known the pair for the best part of thirty years, I’ll be there to try to keep the event running to time!

The free event is sold out, but you can still register to watch online.

Later in the afternoon, two North Edinburgh groups have been working together on an ambitious project that encapsulates North Edinburgh’s spirit of resistance.

The result of the collaboration is the Solidarity Wins: Creative Resistance in North Edinburgh exhibition, which opens at The Portrait Gallery on Queen Street from 2pm today (details below).

It promises to be very good and it’s free – don’t miss it!

The details of today’s events:

RESISTANCE|NORTH EDINBURGH PANEL DISCUSSION

Free – Booking essential SOLD OUT

Book tickets

PICTURE: Craig McLean, Outside Drylaw Police station, community campaign GRASP protesting against Police harassment and violence, 2001

The Resistance exhibition chronicles 100 years of protest across Britain from 1903–2003. Using the exhibition as a starting point, activists Willie Black and Anna Hutchison alongside chair Dave Pickering, editor of the North Edinburgh News and Information Worker at Granton Information Centre, discuss North Edinburgh community activism, campaigns and actions, and their relationship and solidarity with local, national and international protests and change.

All tickets for the live event have been snapped up, but you can watch the discussion online in a streamed version of the live event.

Ticketholders will be sent a joining link before the event to either watch live or view the recording later. 

SOLIDARITY WINS: CREATIVE RESISTANCE in NORTH EDINBURGH

Solidarity Wins: Creative Resistance in North Edinburgh Exhibition Launch

2pm – 4pm

National Galleries of Scotland, The Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street, EH2 1J

Celebration with food, song and creative activities in the Contemporary Space of the Portrait Gallery. Art works, archive films and research material gathered by Art for Grown Ups and Royston Wardieburn Arts & Culture Group.

Join us for an afternoon of creativity, community and conversation celebrating North Edinburgh’s spirit of resistance.

As part of the Resistance exhibition, the National Galleries of Scotland’s Community Development programme has been working with North Edinburgh groups to create responsive work inspired by the area’s long history of community resistance.

Workshops have included song writing, poetry, photo-montage and exploring photographer Craig MacLean’s back catalogue of North Edinburgh activism, all of which will result in an riso-graph exhibition at the Portrait gallery in November.

As well as this North Edinburgh Arts worked with Local Cinema to programme films as part of their ‘Local Resistance’ programme.

Each screening event included a creative element, one of which included the Resistance choir performing their collaboratively penned song ‘Solidarity Wins: A Song for Greater Pilton‘, along with some well known songs on power of solidarity and friendship.

Thanks to song writing facilitator and choir leader Penny Stone and Tinderbox Jed Milroy and artists Sam Rutherford, Jj Fadaka and Megan Rudden, and all those involved so far!

The programme is a partnership with North Edinburgh Arts Art 4 Grown Ups and Royston Wardieburn Community Centre’s Arts and Culture Group.

IMAGE (above): Collaborative piece by Art 4 Grown Ups members, framed by Muirhouse anti-racism campaign image, 1991.

If anyone is free 2 – 4pm today, it’s the launch of ‘Solidarity Wins: Creative Resistance in North Edinburgh‘ exhibition at the Portrait Gallery, which has been a collaboration between North Edinburgh Arts’ Art 4 Grown Ups project and Royston Wardieburn Community Centre’s Arts and Culture Group (writes HOLLY YEOMAN).

Together they have reflected and responded to North Edinburgh activism and campaigns over the years. There is a community lunch catered by Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts and we will be singing our anthem ‘Solidarity Wins: A Song for Greater Pilton‘ at around 3pm-ish(!)

The exhibition will run till April, and we welcome community groups who might want to visit. If interested please email hyeoman@nationalgalleries.org

Holly Yeoman

A Summer of Resistance at the National Galleries of Scotland

Artist and Filmmaker Steve McQueen takes over Modern Two

Resistance: How Protest Shaped Britain and Photography Shaped Protest

National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two

21 June 2025 – 4 January 2026

Tickets £4-£14 Friends go free

Resistance | National Galleries of Scotland

National Galleries of Scotland announces the unmissable summer 2025 exhibition Resistance, conceived by acclaimed artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen. Taking over the whole of Modern Two from 21 June 2025, the exhibition will explore how acts of resistance have shaped life in the UK, and the powerful role of photography in documenting and driving change. Tickets are on sale now.

Presenting around 200 photographs from a century of activism, Resistance gives a voice to the stories and images from history which have been buried in UK archives until now.

Throughout the exhibition McQueen amplifies underrepresented voices to present a compelling exploration of overlooked histories, shedding light on the forgotten stories that have helped define the course of Britain’s history. Resistance tours to Modern Two from Turner Contemporary, Margate.

This exhibition will bring together works by renowned photographers such as Vanley Burke, John Deakin, Fay Godwin, Edith Tudor-Hart, David Hurn, Tish Murtha, Humphrey Spender, and Paul Trevor, alongside lesser-known photographers who documented these powerful stories.

Drawing photographs from various archives, collections and image libraries, McQueen has deliberately focused on moments captured before digital cameras became commonplace.

Spanning both floors of Modern Two, Resistance spans from the radical suffrage movement in 1903 to the largest-ever protest in Britain’s history—the Anti-Iraq War Protest in 2003.

The exhibition will also highlight lesser-known events including the hunger marches of the 1930s where thousands of protesters from Scotland and across Britain marched to London, protesting unemployment and poverty. As well as the Blind March of 1920, a pivotal moment in the fight for disability rights.

Visitors will encounter poignant images from demonstrations against environmental destruction, anti-nuclear campaigns and actions advocating for peace.

The exhibition will trace the evolution of environmental movements and highlight a shift from single-issue demonstrations to broader anti-capitalist efforts that paved the way for today’s climate change action.

Including powerful photographs from the 1000-mile march from Faslane Naval Base to Greenham Common in protest against American nuclear weapons being stationed in the UK in 1983.

From Janine Wiedel’s photographs capturing life at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp to Andrew Testa’s striking depictions of the 1996 protests against the proposed Newbury Bypass in Berkshire, England, Resistance will serve as a testament to the empowering impact of collective action.

It will explore the intersections between movements such as the Gay Liberation Front and the Women’s Liberation Movement, where protests against Section 28 of the Local Government Act brought the LGBTQ+ community together. Connectinghistoric struggles, the exhibition will also examine the fight against fascism in the 1930s and 1940s.

The exhibition will underscore the ongoing struggle against racism, showing how grassroots movements have consistently confronted oppression throughout history. A pivotal moment was the Black People’s Day of Action on 2 March 1981, following the house fire at 439 New Cross Road in South East London, that claimed 13 lives.

The photographs that captured the protest powerfully depict this landmark for Britain’s civil rights movement. Paul Trevor’s series on the Bengali community will further illustrate how the emerging concept of community photography became a form of activism, amplifying the voices of marginalised groups.

Steve McQueen said: “Within the 5 years of developing the exhibition and book with the Turner Contemporary team, it has been an ambition for Resistance to travel to Scotland to be shared with audiences there.

“Resistance explores how people have challenged the status quo—a mission that feels especially urgent in today’s political climate.”

Leila Riszko, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at National Galleries of Scotland said: “We’re enormously proud to platform this compelling selection of works curated by Steve McQueen.

“This is an exciting opportunity to explore the power of photography in documenting the significant yet underrepresented stories of people who’ve helped shape the world we live in today.

“In these divisive times, many of the themes, moments and narratives highlighted in the exhibition continue to have resonance now.

“As a show about resilience, collective power, galvanising for positive change, and inspiring reaction, we hope that Resistance will stimulate discussion with our visitors and invite deeper reflection on those contemporary issues.”

Resistance is curated by Steve McQueen and Clarrie Wallis, with Emma Lewis. Political research is by Sarah Harrison.

The exhibition is produced by Tessa Pierce, with assistance from Brittany Crombie. Organised by and originated at Turner Contemporary, Margate, and adapted for presentation at National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two.

A major new publication by Steve McQueen was also recently released to coincide with the exhibition. The book was compiled by Steve McQueen and edited by Clarrie Wallis and Sarah Harrison.

It is published by Monument Books, a new imprint from Harper Collins.