Join us in celebrating a year of creativity, community, and artistic growth at Granton:hub Art classes Summer Exhibition!
Opening Night – All Welcome!
Friday 27th June | 18:30 – 20:30
Enjoy an evening of art, conversation, and inspiration. There’ll be drinks, nibbles, and plenty of time to chat and catch up with fellow artists in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.
Exhibition Open to the Public:Saturday 28th June | 12:00 – 16:00Sunday 29th June | 12:00 – 16:00
Featuring life drawings, paintings, portraits, landscapes, and city sketches created by our students over the past year.
The National Galleries of Scotland’s unmissable summer exhibition, Resistance, opens this weekend, Saturday 21 June.
Conceived by acclaimed artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen the exhibition takes over the whole of Modern Two. 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.
Plus, on the first Monday of every month during the exhibition, visitors will be able to pay what they wish, starting from just £2.
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. Connecting historic 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.
We’re excited to announce our next exhibition, Fire on the Mountain, Light on the Hill, by leading visual and performance artist Mercedes Azpilicueta, originally from Buenos Aires, now based in Amsterdam.
The exhibition will run from 20 June – 7 September 2025, and will be her first solo show in Scotland. Fire on the Mountain, Light on the Hill will form part of Edinburgh Art Festival’s programme, taking place from 7 – 24 August 2025.
The exhibition is centred on a monumental human-scale Jacquard tapestry entitled ‘Potatoes, Riots and Other Imaginaries’ (2021). Accompanying the tapestry will be a sound piece that introduces whispered gossip and glimpses of songs from social demonstrations.
This mixed media installation weaves together historic and contemporary themes – inspired by the artist’s research of the 1917 Potato Riots in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam, directly organised by working class women of this community in response to the extreme food shortages they faced during the First World War.
The work also references contemporary collective action in the form of Ni Una Menos – the feminist grass roots social movement in Argentina, in which Azpilicueta has played an active role since 2015.
A newly commissioned performance on Friday 22 August will draw connections between the themes of the tapestry to Collective’s site on Calton Hill.
Azpilicueta has come together with award winning, Edinburgh-based artist and choreographer Janice Parker to devise this live event along with other Scottish performers. The exhibition will present drawings relating to the choreography and costumes that will be worn as part of the performance for Edinburgh Art Festival’s closing weekend.
Azpilicueta’s work is committed to an exploration of care and resistance, often considering and revealing less well-known stories from history, and platforming the role of women who have made a difference in the past, and who continue to inspire in the present.
Her recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía-C3A, Córdoba (2024), alongside presentations at the Barbican, London (2024) and Gasworks, London (2021).
Tickets for the National Museum of Scotland’s summer exhibition Beyond the Little Black Dress go on sale tomorrow, Friday 3 March.
Tickets for the National Museum of Scotland’s summer exhibition Beyond the Little Black Dress go on sale tomorrow, Friday 3 March, 2023.
The major fashion exhibition, which runs from 1 July to 29 October 2023, demonstrates how an iconic wardrobe staple has become a blank canvas for designers to convey political and cultural ideas.
When Coco Chanel introduced her simple short black dress in 1926 it was hailed by US Vogue as “the frock that all the world will wear”. From Chanel’s pioneering day dress through to innovative modern creations, the exhibition uses the lens of the ‘LBD’ to explore representations of gender, race, sexuality and subcultural styles.
Featuring classic fashion houses such as Dior, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, Beyond the Little Black Dress also includes garments from contemporary designers like Comme des Garçons, Maximilian, Molly Goddard and Gareth Pugh.
To mark tickets for Beyond the Little Black Dress going on sale, a pair of images by photographer David Eustace have been unveiled.
Georgina Ripley, Principal Curator of Modern and Contemporary Design at National Museums Scotland said: “We are delighted to announce that tickets are now on sale for our biggest ever fashion exhibition, Beyond the Little Black Dress.
“These new images by David Eustace, one of Scotland’s best known photographers, give visitors an exciting taste of what they will see in the exhibition. Featuring two looks by groundbreaking British designer Gareth Pugh, they demonstrate how contemporary designers are subverting expectations and putting their own mark on a wardrobe staple.”
The photographs show Scottish model Zelda Smyth in two striking Gareth Pugh dresses, which will be featured in the exhibition. One is hand-embroidered with black plastic drinking straws and the other embellished with bin bags woven into extraordinary forms. The ‘neo-goth’ designer regularly challenges classical fashion norms and uses unexpected materials to disrupt the conventions of high fashion.
David Eustace said: “Beyond the Little Black Dress explores how designers are really pushing the creative boundaries to challenge what we think we know about an iconic garment, and that’s particularly evident in these two striking dresses by Gareth Pugh.
“Little black dresses made of bin bags or plastic drinking straws might not immediately evoke a sense of glamour, but their clever construction, the manner in which they move and the way the light plays on the materials transforms them into high fashion pieces worthy of the red carpet. They were a joy to photograph and I look forward to seeing them on display in this unique exhibition.”
Sponsored by Baillie Gifford, Beyond the Little Black Dress spans a century of fashion, considering the role of the colour black in a global context. The issue of sustainability of the fashion industry is pulled into focus, looking at the future of production, including garments that utilise smart technologies.
Black British design is celebrated through looks from Maximilian, A-COLD-WALL* and Joe Casely-Hayford among others.
Beyond the Little Black Dress will be accompanied by a publication and programme of events. Tickets will be available to book at www.nms.ac.uk/littleblackdress.
National Museums Scotland Members free.
Book in advance to save, general admission: Adult £12-14.50, Over 60s £10-12.50, Student, Unemployed, Disabled, Young Scot £7.50-10, Under 16s Free, Carers Free
