August 2008 - On Edge exhibition & 30th Birthday

23rd August - 5th December 2008

Scotland’s mobile art space, The Travelling Gallery, will later this month celebrate 30 years with its latest exhibition ON EDGE.

The Travelling Gallery service was launched by the Scottish Arts Council in 1978, to help make contemporary art more easily 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.

The first of the three Gallery vehicles was a converted double-decker bus staffed by a lone Curator/Driver. Liz Ann MacGregor, now Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, was curator of the Travelling Gallery in the early eighties.
 
"I remember with great fondness my days as a bus driver!  And I still refer in speeches to the Travelling Gallery as a formative influence on my career."
 
The latest architect-designed bus was launched in April 2007 with the help of funding from Scottish Arts Council National Lottery fund and from the City of Edinburgh Council, who are now guardians of the Travelling Gallery.  The new vehicle is custom built to withstand long trips along single track roads, and stormy ferry journeys in order to reach some of its more remote parking spots. 

Jim Tough, Acting Chief Executive at the Scottish Arts Council said: “It is amazing to think that the Scottish Arts Council first launched the Travelling Gallery 30 years ago.  Since that time there has been increased visual arts provision across the country but the latest state-of-of the-art Travelling Gallery still plays a vital role in bringing art to the doorstep in communities throughout Scotland. “

Early exhibitions often included artworks from collections like the Scottish Arts Council Collection or the City of Edinburgh Council Collection. Nowadays the exhibitions are representative of the international contemporary art scene and often show recent graduates alongside internationally renowned artists from both Scotland and abroad.  The last exhibition included artists from Columbia, Canada, Poland, New Zealand, Japan and Scotland.

And the anniversary is set to be marked with a get together of many of the 500 artists who have been featured in the gallery since it began touring in 1978. 

The artists have been invited to the launch of ON EDGE,  like the very first Travelling Gallery show in 1978 , an exhibition that explores our relationship with the sea and coastline.

The exhibition features exhibits by a varied group of seven contemporary artists including photographs by Thomas Joshua Cooper, a distinctive 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 Travelling Gallery’s award winning Education Programme will complement the exhibition and include a series of artist led workshops, talks and events.

The exhibition will be launched outside The City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh on Friday 22nd August from 5.30pm – 7.30pm.

The gallery will start its tour with a visit to Penicuik on 23rd August and will then be visiting schools, colleges and public venues across Scotland until 5th December.

For further information, interviews (including with previous artists and community bookers), images of the artworks in the exhibition and all the Travelling Gallery vehicles past and present please contact: