Five things you need to know today

Tickets go on sale today for a concert next year which Poppyscotland and Legion Scotland are organising at Usher Hall to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe.

Scotland’s Salute VE80 will take place on 6 May with music from a tri-service orchestra telling the story of the victory. It will bring the stories of those who were there to life and will be an act of remembrance.

The event will be narrated by Alasdair Hutton OBE TD, previously the voice of the world-renowned Edinburgh Military Tattoo, with BFBS’s own Mark Mckenzie acting as the evenings compere. 

Dr Claire Armstrong, OBE, Chief Executive of Legion Scotland said: “Legion Scotland are exceptionally proud to bring the latest in our commemorative concerts in honour of this historic milestone in partnership with Poppyscotland. Our Scotland Salutes concert is set to be a fantastic evening, with wonderful music and stories playing out on stage, whilst representing our nation coming together to reflect on the momentous occasion that was Victory in Europe, 80 years on.”

At the RSA until 11 December

One of Scotland’s longest-running artist-led organisations is bringing its annual exhibition back to Edinburgh.

Each year, the Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) invites artists from across the country to submit work to its prestigious showcase. As 2024 draws to a close, the SSA returns to the Royal Scottish Academy building in the heart of the capital.

The 126th Annual Exhibition of the SSA opens to the public on Saturday 23 November and runs until Wednesday 11 December 2024.

More than 200 works have been selected from more than 2000 entries. They include painting, sculpture, installations, video and performance.

Since it was founded in 1891, the SSA has had a proud history of promoting contemporary artists at all stages of their career. The Society’s first show in 1892 exhibited work by Rodin, Raeburn and Rembrandt, alongside paintings by established Scottish artists such as Joseph Farquharson and Noel Paton.

Picasso, Munch and Paul Klee were three internationally known artists whose work was exhibited in the following decades, demonstrating the organisation’s pioneering approach to bringing the latest developments in contemporary art to Scotland.

This year’s SSA exhibition includes work from 12 recent graduates selected from Scotland’s five university art schools earlier this year. Artworks by recipients of various SSA awards and international partnerships also feature.

Printmaker and sculptor, Joanne Pemberton, was this year’s recipient of the bi-annual Eichstätt Lithography Residency. Her distinctive artwork will be shown alongside SSA award winners, Niamh Coutts and Hans K Clausen. 

Edinburgh-based Hans K. Clausen will be showing his headline-grabbing installation. Inspired by the 75th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s 1984, it features 1984 copies of the iconic novel donated and sourced from around the world.

This work, The Winston Smith Library of Victory and Truth, was first shown earlier this year on the Inner Hebridean island of Jura, where Orwell wrote his seminal work. This will be the first stop on its tour outside of Jura before it finds a permanent home.

Also selected for the exhibition is a delicate and accomplished portrait in oil by the youngest artist to exhibit, 17-year-old Ruby Mitcham, of her Gordonstoun best friend and room-mate, Iona. This rising art star is currently on an art scholarship to the world-renowned secondary school in Moray in the north-east of Scotland.

  • Exhibition: 126th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Scottish Artists
  • Venue: RSA Upper Galleries, Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL
  • Dates: until Wednesday 11 December 2024
  • Opening Times: Monday-Sunday 10am-5pm
  • Ticket Information: £6 entry | £4 concession | under 16’s and SSA Members free entry. Free entry for all on Mondays
  • Website: https://www.s-s-a.org/

SSA Annual Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound Edinburgh
A wall of SSA Members paintings
All images © Stewart Attwood Photography 2024.

At Out of the Blue Abbeymount this weekend

An Open Studios this weekend will allow everyone the opportunity to have a look at what is being made by the very creative folk who work there.

The Winter Open Studios event at Abbeymount will be held on Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December when the studios will be open from 12noon to 5pm.

A spokesperson said: “Our Open Studios Weekends are a great chance for you to come along and meet our resident artists and browse an exciting variety of works. Everything is handmade at the studios. With lots on offer, from fashion and textiles, ceramics and glass to  photography, painting, printmaking, illustration, and more!

“We’re busy making the final plans but in the meantime here are the artists and makers who took part in our most recent event

“To keep up to date with all the Open Studios news, make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Join in the conversation #AbbeymountOpenStudios”

Drylaw Good Apples

If you are interested in joining in with the Drylaw Good Apples project then click here.

To rebuild or not to rebuild?

At Riddle’s Court on 11 December Liz Davidson, Project Director at the National Trust for Scotland, will be talking about reconstructing Glasgow School of Art – or not. She and Caroline Stanford will also talk about other buildings. Tickets here

The loss of a significant building is often taken to be an opportunity to rebuild with a contemporary structure. But when should we, and how should we, attempt accurately to reconstruct buildings which have been destroyed? 

Liz Davidson was senior project manager on the Glasgow School of Art Regeneration project from 2014 through to 2022, and is now Project Director at the National Trust for Scotland with responsibility for the repair and conservation of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House. She will reflect on the philosophy of the decision to restore after the first fire in 2014 and the much greater losses of the second fire which necessitate a full – at least structural – reconstruction.

Caroline Stanford is in-house Historian at The Landmark Trust, whose scholarly restoration projects have included Auchinleck House and Fairburn Tower (which included the creation of a well-researched, but hypothetical, painted ceiling). Using case studies from Landmark’s work, Caroline will discuss how Landmark arrives at a philosophy of repair for each building it takes on, and consider the pre-conditions that sometimes make facsimile reconstruction acceptable.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-case-for-reconstruction-glasgow-school-of-art-other-stories-tickets-1044200099607