UP AND DOWN Scotland this year, galleries and art organisations celebrate anniversaries of 20, 40, 50, even 100 years. Birthdays, of course, are a time to celebrate, and this feels all the more important in today’s difficult financial climate in which surviving from year to year can feel like a challenge.
The oldest, most illustrious member of 2024’s birthday club is the Stirling Smith, Stirling’s municipal museum (150 years). The gallery was founded at the behest of artist Thomas Stuart Smith, who gifted his inheritance to fund a museum and art gallery for the town.
“Today, The Smith functions as a gallery, museum and cultural centre for the Stirling area,” says exhibitions and events officer Dr Heather Carroll. “It’s a much-treasured resource in the community, valued for its lecture theatre, cafe and biodiversity garden as well as its exhibitions, historical and contemporary.” The Smith even had its own cat, Oswald (“Cat-in-Charge”), much loved by visitors, who passed away in 2021.
“Despite years of growth, our organisation’s core values have remained the same. Everything we do is influenced by inclusivity and the idea that artists should and can help one another.”
Amanda Airey – Visual Arts Scotland
The artist-run organisation Visual Arts Scotland (100 years) kicked off its centenary programme in February with its biggest-ever exhibition, Then and Now: 100 Years of Visual Arts Scotland, at the Royal Scottish Academy in February, featuring work by 242 artists. Further shows are planned later this year at Tatha Gallery and Dalkeith Palace.
Founded in 1924 as the Scottish Society of Women Artists, with a focus on applied arts, over the years VAS has opened up to include craftsmen as well as women, and more recently to include fine art and contemporary art. It now has a membership of over 1000.
Co-president Amanda Airey says: “Despite years of growth, our organisation’s core values have remained the same. Everything we do is influenced by inclusivity and the idea that artists should and can help one another. I hope we continue to enable artists to support artists for another 100 years.”
Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s oldest contemporary art gallery, the Fruitmarket, turns 50. Over the years, the former fruit and vegetable market has hosted illustrious exhibitions by Frank Auerbach, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Hockney, Max Ernst, Yoko Ono, Louise Bourgeois, John Cage and Jean-Michel Basquiat. A major refurbishment recently doubled its floorspace.
Founded with the aim of showing the best of Scottish and international art, the gallery is currently hosting a solo exhibition by Martin Boyce, who featured in its programme for emerging Scottish artists in 1999, and has since won the Turner Prize and represented Scotland in the Venice Biennale.
Writing on the anniversary, Fiona Bradley, the director of the gallery since 2003, acknowledged that there were downs as well as ups in its history. “There’s so much joy in what we do, but right now, as we try to ensure that Fruitmarket can continue to bring art to all for the next 50 years, it feels precarious. It’s no secret that times are hard, and that support for the arts, public and private, is hard to achieve and under increasing scrutiny. Investment in artists is investment in hope, in clarity, in social justice.”
Another of Edinburgh’s flagship contemporary galleries, Collective (40 years) started out as an artist-run space and has retained its remit to support emerging artists in Scotland and offer international artists their first shows in Scotland or the UK. Those who have had important early exhibitions at the gallery include Ruth Ewan, Alberta Whittle, Jeremy Deller and Monster Chetwynd. In 2018, after a four-year redevelopment, Collective moved to the former observatory complex on Calton Hill where it hosted just under 500,000 visitors in its first year.
Scottish artist Moyna Flannigan, who was a committee member in the 1990s when the gallery was artist-run, will return for a major exhibition in the summer (June 28-Sep 15). Director Sorcha Carey says: “We are marking four decades of Collective by showcasing what has always been at our heart – our commitment to supporting artists at all stages of their careers.”
Two leading ceramics organisations clock up important birthdays this year. Scottish Potters Association (50 years) began at an informal at-home meeting and is now a registered charity with over 400 members. It marks its anniversary with a touring exhibition, Roots and Wings, currently at Resipole Studios in Ardnamurchan (until May 10) and set to visit Haddington, Inverness, West Kilbride, Inverurie and Aberdeen.
Chairman Carl Radford said: “Roots relates to the idea that makers should acknowledge their history and teachers, while the wings reference is about showcasing the best of Scottish ceramics in all forms. Pottery has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years and SPA will continue to champion the benefits of being involved with this craft.”
Potfest, the annual festival of ceramics at Scone Palace, had its beginnings in the North of England exactly 30 years ago. Fuelled by the burgeoning interest in ceramics, it has grown from one annual event to nine this year across the length and breadth of the UK, and was one of the few arts events able to keep going through the pandemic years, as the fair takes place in open-sided marquees. It is now among the largest ceramics organisations in Europe.
Meanwhile, Tea Green Events (10 years), established by Dundee-based jeweller Joanne MacFadyen as a platform for Scotland’s independent creative businesses, will mark its birthday at the V&A Dundee Summer Design Market in July. For its tenth year, Tea Green is mounting its largest programme to date, taking in venues such as The Burrell Collection, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum and National Galleries Scotland.
MacFadyen said: “I feel incredibly proud to have grown Tea Green to where it is today, and to showcase Scotland’s creative talent in some truly iconic spaces. The quality of work on show speaks for itself and it’s a joy and privilege to champion it.”
Edinburgh Art Festival (20 years) is now an established part of the crowded cultural landscape of Edinburgh in August. Founded in 2004, EAF established a reputation for inviting Scottish and international artists to create works in the city, often in unusual and rediscovered spaces. Highlights of past festivals include Toby Paterson, Richard Wright, Martin Creed, Alfredo Jaar, Susan Philipsz, as well as the annual show, Platform, for emerging artists. This year’s festival (9-25 August) features international artists Karol Radziszewski and Prem Sahib, among others.
Director Kim McAleese described the anniversary as “a moment to pause and reflect upon the conditions under which we live, work, gather and resist”. “We want to connect to our current and historical context and the city, to those who inspire change and facilitate structures for working together and building collective futures.”
Sculpture park Jupiter Artland (15 Years), near Wilkieston, West Lothian, adds to its collection of major works every year, and now features sculptural artworks by Anya Gallaccio, Rachel Maclean, Alberta Whittle, Tracey Emin and Phyllida Barlow, among others, in its 100 acres plus of parkland.
Founder and director Nicky Wilson says: “What started as an idea born from the kitchen table has turned into a space where the dreams have grown and matured into something beyond the walls. I look back over the last 15 years and think about the immense privilege of working so closely with great artists, often to produce their most important work or create a step change in their practice. Fundamentally Jupiter is driven by our deep belief that every child in Scotland needs to have moments of inspiration to develop, find their voice and get ready to be the citizens, creatives, and thinkers of the future.”
“What started as an idea born from the kitchen table has turned into a space where the dreams have grown and matured into something beyond the walls.”
Nicky Wilson – Jupiter Artland
Privately-owned galleries marking milestones this year have faced challenging times in recent years, with the pandemic followed by the cost-of-living crisis. Dundee’s Gallery Q celebrates its 25th birthday, but owner Lucinda Middleton says the last five years have been challenging ones. She and her husband Carey moved from mid-Wales to take over the gallery six years ago, when founder Joyce McGlone retired.
Middleton says: “We took over in October 2018, and in retrospect it was bad timing given what was to come in 2020. The gallery only made it through thanks to government grants. While I love working in the gallery and especially meeting and encouraging the artists, things have not got back to the way they were before lockdown and I’ve had to go back to my original career in museums during the week, working in the gallery on a Saturday and taking time off to hang the exhibitions.”
Resipole Studios in Ardnamurchan turns 20 – a testament to the vision of Andrew Sinclair, an artist and graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, who was determined to create a home for high-quality art (as well as artist studios) in one of Scotland’s most remote rural areas. He undertook the renovation of a derelict barn on his family’s farm, doing most of the work himself, and opened Resipole in 2004.
Today, the gallery represents a roster of some 50 artists and has a burgeoning client base, some of whom occasionally drop in by boat or sea-plane. In 2016, Resipole was chosen to host a retrospective by the late American expressionist Jon Schueler, who had spent several years living on the Sound of Sleat. Schueler’s work is part of the anniversary programme, which includes three exhibitions celebrating the inspiration of the West Coast.
Gallery manager Kerrie Robinson says: “Twenty years is a significant milestone for the gallery and is testament to the determination and hard work of Andrew, particularly given our deep rural location. The key to our longevity has been in the consistency of art on display and how it is displayed, but also in not being afraid to diversify, embrace change and to have an ambitious programme of exhibitions.”
The Whitehouse Gallery in Kirkcudbright (20 years) is another gallery which has established its reputation far from Scotland’s urban centres. Whitehouse Gallery is known for group exhibitions which bring together painting and applied art, such as its highly successful – and now annual – Canvas and Clay show. Owner Lynne Atkinson believes the gallery’s longevity lies in its “roster of incredible painters and sculptors, but also in having a passion for craft and wanting to shine a spotlight onto makers and artists equally”.
Lindsay Bennett, owner of Tatha Gallery, Newport-On-Tay (10 years), describes the past decade as “an absolute blast”, with highlights including the first show for 50 years of work by Norman Gilbert, which turned the 92-year-old artist into an internet sensation, and Vision in Time & Changing Light, which brought together the work of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Hetty Haxworth.
However, Bennett says the gallery’s survival has been down to being able to pivot and be creative as a business. “I feel the last three years have seen the biggest change in how people connect with and buy art. With that in mind we have had to change our approach to what we do. We now work closely with interior designers and their clients and offer an art consultancy service. In a nutshell our longevity comes down to adapting our approach to how we connect with clients.”
