Travelling Gallery

30 years on the road for the Travelling Gallery

Scotland’s mobile art gallery celebrates its 30th birthday this year with a new exhibition which, like its very first exhibition, celebrates and explores our relationship with the sea and coastline.

The Travelling Gallery service was launched by the Scottish Arts Council in 1978, to help make contemporary art more accessible to schools and communities around the country. Since then the specially built gallery in a bus has travelled throughout Scotland every year, taking nearly 100 different exhibitions featuring more than 500 artists, to thousands of people in all areas of the country, from Shetland to Stranraer. 

During the 30 years the service has been operating, there have been three gallery vehicles and the latest architect designed custom-built vehicle is a far cry from the converted double decker bus which first went on the road in 1978. The new gallery-bus was launched in April 2007 with support from Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund and the City of Edinburgh Council who have been guardians of the Travelling Gallery sine 1997.

The gallery’s latest exhibition, ‘On Edge’, features work by seven contemporary artists exploring issues relating to the sea, and includes stunning photographs by Thomas Joshua Cooper, a distinctive (and familiar) sound-based work by Dalziel and Scullion, a specially commissioned wall drawing by Charlotte Watters as well as sculpture, photography and video-based works by three other artists.

The exhibition will be launched outside the City Art Centre in Edinburgh on Friday 22 August and start its tour in Penicuik on 23 August. The exhibition together with its award winning education programme will then be visiting schools, colleges and public venues across Scotland until 5 December. Tour dates and venues are posted on the Travelling gallery website.