After over a year of online exhibitions and yearning to be able to walk around a room filled with creativity and inspiration, Scotland’s many art galleries and museums are finally open.
Now, there are many beautiful displays available to all art lovers this summer. Here are Brig’s top four picks.
Jupiter Artland
Jupiter Artland is an award winning contemporary sculpture garden situated just outside Edinburgh, with an international reputation for innovation and creativity.
This beautiful landscape and exhibition platform was founded in 2009 by philanthropist art collectors Robert and Nicky Wilson. They have grown the Artland into one of Scotland’s most significant art exhibitions.
With 100 acres of meadow, woodland and outdoor spaces, Jupiter Artland is home to over 30 unique sculptures and has a seasonal programme of carefully curated exhibitions and events.
Education and outreach are at the heart of the ethos here and this summer Jupiter Artland plan to touch as many hearts as possible with their wonderful events and exhibitions.
This year Jupiter Artland will unveil a new permanent outdoor exhibit by Scottish artist Rachel Maclean, alongside a solo exhibition featuring four of her key works. Her creations are a must see for those who have a morbid appreciation for the dark fairy-tale.
As well as their eccentric and creative exhibitions, Jupiter Artland will be home to a festival this summer. ‘Jupiter Rising’ will be a small arts and music festival where visitors can spend their nights revelling in all things art, music, and culture.
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Kelvingrove Art Gallery is Scotland’s most popular free to enter visitor attraction. After being closed for almost a year, staff have been working hard to make each individual’s visit one to remember.
The museum first opened its doors in 1901. When it re-opened in 2006 after renovation and a redisplay project it was organised into two halves: Life and Expression.
The life galleries represent natural history, human history, and prehistory, while the expression galleries include one of Scotland’s most impressive fine art collections.
Kelvingrove is home to 22 themed art galleries, displaying over 8000 objects that are extensive, wide-ranging, and internationally significant. It has also obtained some of the most beautiful landscape and architecture that Scotland has to offer.
So, whether you’d like to walk around the galleries, examine the detailed architecture or just sit in the gardens and take in your surroundings, Kelvingrove has something for everyone.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
The home to Scotland’s outstanding collection of modern and contemporary art gives visitors two moderns to explore.
Modern One was built in 1960, now with bright spacious rooms for both temporary exhibitions and permanent collection displays.
With its sister gallery opening across the road in 1999, this gallery holds a collection best known as ‘Beyond Realism’ which brings together some of the finest examples of surrealist art.
The gallery features inspiring works from Salvador Dali, Leonora Carrington, and Rene Magrite, providing a view of much greater depth into the world of surrealist art.
This National art gallery is a combination of artwork, garden and social space. The landform was inspired by the chaos theory and shapes found in nature. It won the Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year in 2004.
This summer, Scotland’s National Gallery of Modern Art has a must-see exhibition by Ray Harryhausen titled ‘Titan of the Cinema’, exhibited inside Modern Two.
It includes a carefully curated package of films and film clips, never seen before interviews, exhibition footage and specially created animation sequences which demonstrate Harryhausen’s innovative processes.
V&A Dundee
As the first ever design museum in Scotland, this centre offers an exciting range of work from all around the globe. It is a place of inspiration, discovery, and learning for all ages.
The design centre, situated in the heart of Dundee’s city centre, offers a major must see exhibition this summer – ‘Night fever: designing club culture’.
This exhibit explores the relationship between club culture and design from the 1960’s to the present day.
Delving into iconic clubs in NYC, Paris, Florence, Manchester, London, Berlin, and cities across Scotland, it uncovers the progressive and subversive history of nightclub design and its far reaching influence on pop culture.
Each of the V&A’s designs range from architecture to fashion, healthcare to furniture and engineering to video games. There really is something for everyone.
Around 300 exhibits have been drawn from their world famous collections of art, design, and performance created by designers across Scotland and the rest of the globe.
If that wasn’t enough, it is also home to the very beautiful restaurant ‘Tatha’ where you can dine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The time to kick start your summer is now! After this incredibly hard year, allow yourself to be at one with creativity. It could take you somewhere unexpected and exciting.
Feature image credit: Canva edit by Hannah coyle
