Hello, Bob!

An inspirational sculpture created by school children in Orkney goes on display at the National Galleries of Scotland: National

Your Art World

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National Galleries of Scotland: National

24 June 2023 – 14 April 2024

A sculpture created by school children in Orkney will arrive at its new home in the National at the National Galleries of Scotland this month. Named Bob, the inspirational artwork has been travelling across Scotland touring to schools and communities to highlight the importance of art for young people. 

Bob has become a school mascot, spreading the children’s important message to protect our world from pollution.

Created by Dounby Community School the sculpture will join the Your Art World exhibition, which opens today (24 June). 

The exhibition aims to engage with young people and encourage them to think creatively, supporting future generations of artists. 

Digital screens will also display the artwork from over 270 incredible 3-18 year olds who uploaded their creations to the website. The young people could be as imaginative as they liked and use any type of materials for their creations, resulting in a superb and broad range of artwork.

The exhibition is a celebration of what happens when young people are encouraged to be wildly imaginative with no limitations.

Families and young people inspired by the creativity will also be able to get involved in making their own creations in the galleries this Summer.

With a specially created ‘make and share’ area allowing them to produce and upload their own work to the website. There is also the added bonus of having their artwork added to the digital showcase on the screens.

Four core groups have created spectacular physical installations for the exhibition, which will be displayed alongside the collection of digital art works.

Dounby Community school’s installation will feature, as well as creations from young people in their final year at Galashiels secondary school and Granton Primary.

A group of children and their families from PAMIS, an organisation in Scotland working with people with profound and multiple learning disabilities for a better life, are also featured.

Touring to schools and communities, Bob has challenged children across the country to make and share their own creations.

Giving them the opportunity of having their own works displayed on digital screens as part of the final exhibition at the National. Bob visited Inverness, Skye, Aberdeen, West Lothian, Dundee, Fife, Stirling, Glasgow and Galashiels along the way.

Even taking a trip to Holyrood to join Orkney MSP Liam McArthur (top), where the school pupils were commended in the Scottish Parliament for their hard work.

The creation was inspired by Dounby Community School’s chosen theme of ‘protect’, with the children making a life size character named Trashy.

Made of rubbish found on the beach, the sculpture is a meaningful representation of their desire to protect the world from climate change. As a friend for Trashy they created Bob as their mascot. 

Bob will soon re-join Trashy at the Your Art World exhibition, as part of the wider installation created by the 152 pupils from Dounby Community School.

Dounby Community School Head Teacher, Islean Gibson, said: “Being part of such an amazing gallery exhibition has given everyone here at Dounby School such a sense of pride and motivation.

“Sharing our thoughts and ideas as part of a national project has really inspired our whole school community. The power of creation will have a lasting legacy.

“It makes me swell with pride every day seeing just how impactful creativity can be for a wee school and its community. I would wholeheartedly recommend everyone take that step into Your Art World and see where it takes you!”

Siobhan McConnachie, Head of Learning and Engagement, National Galleries of Scotland, said: ‘I feel so excited and proud to be showcasing the art work of the talented young artists of Scotland.

“The response to challenges has been truly inspiring and we have been so impressed with everyone’s creativity. The Your Art World project is incredibly important to us at National Galleries of Scotland as it hands over the creative process to young people and celebrates their work.

“Art has its place in every school, home and young person’s life, whether that be encouraging people to think creatively, use it as an expressive outlet or simply for some fun, this project and exhibition celebrates that art really is for everyone.’

This exhibition is made possible thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, who have raised more than £5 million awarded by Postcode Culture Trust to support National Galleries of Scotland.

All submissions can be viewed via the online gallery and will also be displayed digitally at the National until spring 2024. 

National Galleries of Scotland announce unmissable upcoming exhibitions in Edinburgh

A major Grayson Perry retrospective is announced today (28 November). The largest exhibition of Alberta Whittle’s career to date, a solo show by Do Ho Suh, and printmakers’ treasures are also among highlights of the National Galleries of Scotland’s new exhibitions programme.

Next summer, come and see the biggest ever exhibition of Grayson Perry’s work, covering his 40-year career.

 Perry has gone from taking pottery evening classes to winning the Turner Prize, presenting television programmes on Channel 4 and writing acclaimed books. 

Pottery allowed him the opportunity to indulge his fascination with sex, Punk, and counterculture, amongst other things, in the most unlikely and polite of art forms. Today he is one of Britain’s most celebrated artists and cultural figures.

Popular and provocative, Perry makes art that deals with difficult and complex ideas in an accessible and often funny way. He loves taking on big issues that are universally human: masculinity, sexuality, class, religion, politics and more.

On view will be subversive pots, brilliantly intricate prints, elaborate sculptures, and huge, captivating tapestries – all imbued with Perry’s sharp wit and social commentary. Working with traditional mediums, Perry addresses the controversial issues of our times.

We’ll reveal more information about the exhibition next spring. Running at the Royal Scottish Academy from 22 July until 12 November 2023, discover how and why he has become such a cultural icon.

Alberta Whittle: create dangerously is an immersive exhibition which invites you to slow down and pause.

At the heart of Alberta’s solo show is her generous spirit which promotes compassion and collective care as means of resisting racism and anti-Blackness. Alberta addresses the brutality and harm caused by colonialism, the Transatlantic trade in enslaved people, and the ongoing climate crisis.

Through richly symbolic artworks, she pulls apart the belief that ’racism and police brutality is [just] an English/Scottish problem or an American problem’. Instead, she underlines Scotland’s complicity in the structures of white supremacy.

Often deeply personal, weaving stories of family and belonging, Alberta ultimately offers a message of hope, asking us to imagine a world outside of these damaging systems and ways of thinking.

This will be the largest showing of Alberta’s works to date, with sculptures, digital collages, watercolours and new paintings made especially for the show, taking over the ground floor of Modern One. 

Alongside never-before-seen artworks, the free exhibition offers you the opportunity to see Alberta’s extraordinary tapestry, Entanglement is more than blood, and film, Lagareh – The Last Born – which was on display at the Venice Biennale 2022, commissioned by Scotland+Venice. 

Alberta Whittle: create dangerously, running from 1 April 2023 until 7 January 2024, will explore the ambition and breadth of the Barbadian-Scottish artist’s career to date. Alberta Whittle: create dangerously is kindly supported by Baillie Gifford, National Galleries of Scotland Foundation and The Alberta Whittle Exhibition Supporters’ Circle.

A first for us and for Scotland: a solo exhibition coming winter 2023/24 of the South Korean-born, London-based Do Ho Suh.

One of the world’s leading contemporary artists, Do Ho Suh will explore the foundational role that drawing and paper play in Suh’s artistic practice, focusing on his collaborative methods, experimental techniques, and innovative use of materials. 

The free exhibition, taking over an entire level of Modern One, will present the artist’s complex and compelling thread drawings – in which cotton thread is embedded on handmade paper – alongside architectural rubbings, paper sculptures, cyanotypes, printmaking and watercolours.

There will also be a major new installation of Suh’s famed ‘hubs’, life-size sculptures that recreate physical spaces in colourful, translucent fabric. You can step right inside and immerse yourselves in this innovative reimagining of places meaningful to the artist and his life. 

Do Ho Suh is kindly supported by National Galleries of Scotland Foundation, and our associated engagement and audience development initiatives are kindly supported by Baillie Gifford.

Printmaking, one of the most accessible art forms, takes centre stage next Winter. Come and experience the print pioneers who have made their mark in the last five hundred years in Rembrandt to RegoThe Printmaker’s Art. 

You will go on a journey from Albrecht Dürer in the fifteenth century right through to contemporary artists including Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili. On the way you will discover how artists have pushed the boundaries in both subject and technique through screen printing, etching, engraving and more. 

The show includes many brilliant artists who are now famous for their printmaking; see prints by Andy Warhol, William Blake, Rembrandt, Francisco de Goya, Elizabeth Blackadder, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, Pablo Picasso and more.

Appreciate the techniques, tools and materials up close – you may even be inspired to give it a go. Rembrandt to Rego: The Printmaker’s Art runs from 2 December until 25 February 2024.

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 marks a welcome return to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Capturing and sharing emotional, dramatic, or everyday moments in life is the magic of this exhibition.A truly global affair, the prize celebrates the very best in contemporary photography on an international scale.

Sharing work by celebrated professionals and enthusiastic amateurs alike, the images selected for the exhibition share in their ability to move onlookers.

This year’s prize-winning photographs examine a range of subjects – from queerness, transness and the concept of chosen family, socially distanced glimpses into daily lockdown life, to identity and life in former Soviet states.

See several famous faces up close, including footballer and activist Marcus Rashford and Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard. The variety of themes explored throughout the exhibition is matched by the high-quality, contemporary portraiture that reflects the shifting world of today. This free exhibition runs from 17 June until 10 September 2023.

Also at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Making Space: Photographs of Architecture will explore how architecture impacts our lives.

As a record of human life past, present, and future, architecture and people are intrinsically linked. A poorly built environment exacerbates inequality, but architecture has the power to address social issues including homelessness, poverty, and displacement.

This fascinating exhibition will also consider how the built environment has a significant role to play in creating a more sustainable future. On display will be a diverse range of photographic styles, formats and processes dating from the 1840s to the present day.

Follow the line from Hill & Adamson’s early experiments on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill through to spectacular contemporary photographs by Andreas Gursky and Chris Leslie which capture the breath-taking scale of modern buildings. Entry to this exhibition is free and will take place from 7 October 2023 until 3 March 2024.

Your Art World, from summer 2023 to spring 2024, will help young people across Scotland to discover a whole new world of creative possibilities.

This inclusive and interactive exhibition is free to see and includes work generated over the past year from a nation-wide call out to those aged between 3-18 years old. 

Your Art World’s goal is to inspire and empower young people to think and act creatively but there’s also the added bonus of having their artwork showcased. All submissions will be displayed both online and at the Scottish National Gallery. 

Your Art World is generously supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

The final programme highlight is the return of a keenly-awaited tradition: the opening of Turner in January, an exhibition of mesmerising watercolours to help us through the dark days of winter.

Scotland’s famous collection of J.M.W. Turner watercolours was left to the nation by the great art collector Henry Vaughan in 1900.

Since then, following Vaughan’s strict guidelines, they have only ever been displayed during the month of January, when natural light levels are at their lowest. Because of this, these watercolours still possess a freshness and an intensity of colour, almost 200 years since they were originally created. 

Presented at the Royal Scottish Academy, Turner in January will open on New Year’s Day 2023 and be open throughout the month of January. Turner in January is generously supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Sir John Leighton, Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland said: “There is so much to look forward to across our Galleries next year.

“From connecting with Grayson Perry’s craftsmanship up close to slowing down with Alberta Whittle to experience compassion and care, there is something for everyone to discover. Everyone is invited to our Galleries to learn, find a moment of calm, or feel inspired.”

Completing the exhibition programme are free displays currently at the Scottish National Gallery and Modern One respectively: Conserving Scotland’s Art until 16 April, which shines a light on how we preserve art for future generations to enjoy; Conversations with the Collection, offering a fresh way of presenting modern and contemporary art; and until 12 February, New Arrivals: From Salvador Dalí to Jenny Savillea fascinating showcase of our latest modern and contemporary acquisitions.