National Galleries of Scotland

It was announced today that Christopher Baker has been appointed as the new Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, following an international search led by the recruitment company Odgers Berndtson.

Christopher has been Deputy Director of the Scottish National Gallery since 2003 and was previously Curator at Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford.  He will take up his position at the Portrait Gallery on 1 August 2012.

Christopher has an impressive record as a curator and a manager, and has combined scholarly depth with a broad popular appeal in his work for the Galleries, organising some of the Scottish National Gallery’s most successful exhibitions, including The Discovery of Spain and Turner and Italy (both 2009).

Commenting on his new role, Christopher said: 'The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has been brilliantly re-developed and it is a privilege to be given the opportunity to work with a much-admired national institution and such an outstanding and wide-ranging collection on the next stage of its development.'

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has been shortlisted for the Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries 2012, it was announced last night.  The £100,000 prize - the largest single arts prize in the UK - is awarded annually to a museum or gallery for an outstanding project which demonstrates originality, imagination and excellence.  The Portrait Gallery re-opened to the public on 1 December 2011 following a £17.6m refurbishment, and with an entirely new presentation of its world-famous collection.

Speaking of the nomination, John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: 'We are thrilled to hear that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has made the shortlist for the Art Fund Prize. There have been some extraordinary developments in the museums and galleries across Scotland and the rest of the UK in the last year, and we are very pleased and honoured to be short listed in such a strong field.  In our redevelopment project we tried to rethink what a portrait gallery could mean for people in the 21st century.  It was important for us to refurbish the building and make it much more accessible and coherent for our visitors; but it was equally important for us to transform the way we present the collections, offering, we hope, a much more vivid and engaging portrait of Scotland past and present. We have been delighted by the response from the public and it is fabulous to have this endorsement from the judges of the Art Fund prize.’

The Portrait Gallery joins The Hepworth Wakefield, Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, and Watts Gallery on this year’s shortlist.  The winner will be announced on 19 June.

nationalgalleries.org has won the Best of the Web award for Long-lived website at the Museums and the Web 2012 conference. The Long-lived category rewards a museum that has shown a long-term commitment to an excellent online presence and continues to deliver quality, be useful and serve the community.

The Galleries has been working with web developers Keepthinking for 7 years to continuously improve nationalgalleries.org and integrate online channels to offer visitors the best possible experience. The recent redesign of the website focused on adding new interactive features, making visitor information more easily accessible, enhancing mobile and touchscreen compatibility and integrating social media channels. The National Galleries of Scotland is proud to be recognised internationally for its work online.

You can see this year’s other Best of the Web winners on the Museums and the Web 2012 website.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is delighted to announce a new acquisition by Alison Watt, one of Scotland’s most distinguished contemporary artists. Self Portrait, (1986-7) was made while the artist was still a student at Glasgow School of Art and has been presented by the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for art, to celebrate the re-opening of the Gallery in December 2011.  The painting is currently on display.

 

The National Galleries of Scotland, in partnership with Creative Scotland and the British Council Scotland, are seeking an experienced curator and/or visual arts organisations to work with them in delivering an ambitious and imaginative display for the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice in 2013. More information about this opportunity is available on the Creative Scotland website.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce the launch of a new partnership project with Google Art.  This is part of a wider partnership programme through Google in which art lovers are able, with a few simple clicks, to virtually access paintings, sculpture, street art and photographs from across the world.

National Galleries of Scotland is one of 151 partners across 40 countries. There will be 150 works from the Galleries' collection available through the Google Art portal, including world-class works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Raeburn and Titian.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to feature in a new smartphone app launched today by the Art Fund. Art Guide is free and promotes more than 600 museums, galleries, castles and historic houses across the UK – including all National Galleries of Scotland sites and exhibitions.

Art Guide can be downloaded for free by iPhone users from the Apple App Store and an Android version will be coming soon.

 

To celebrate its recent nomination for the Art Fund Prize 2012, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery will be holding a ‘Vote for Us’ Day on Thursday 15 March.  Between 10am and 4pm visitors to the Gallery will be able to enjoy free cake from the hugely popular café and anyone who posts a comment on the Art Fund Prize forum will be entered into a draw to win an iPad 2.  A selection of comments submitted will be published on the site and passed to the judges to consider.

The forum and prize draw close at 11.59pm on Sunday 22 April.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art today launched an appeal for owners of paintings by the celebrated Scottish Colourist S. J. Peploe to come forward.  Following the success of its current exhibition devoted to the work of Peploe’s friend F. C. B. Cadell, the Gallery will be holding a major retrospective of Peploe’s work, opening on 3 November 2012.  The exhibition curators are interested in uncovering rarely seen works by one of the most important Scottish artists of the twentieth-century.

Alice Strang, Senior Curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art said: 'It would be wonderful to bring to light beautiful paintings by this leading Scottish artist, which have not been seen in public for decades.'

If you think you can help, please contact Alice Strang on astrang@nationalgalleries.org / 0131 624 6328. All information received will be treated in confidence.

The National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London are delighted to announce that Titian’s great masterpiece Diana and Callisto has been acquired for the public.

This acquisition - along with the purchase of its companion painting Diana and Actaeon in 2009 - ensures that these two superlative works by Titian will remain together on public display in either London or Edinburgh. This also means that the Bridgewater Collection - the greatest private collection of Old Master Paintings in the world – will remain intact on long-term loan at the National Galleries of Scotland.

Both institutions were acutely aware of the challenges of launching a public campaign during such difficult economic times and therefore decided to approach individual donors and grant-making trusts in the first instance.  Our initial discussions led to a number of significant pledges of support, with exceptional charitable grants being offered by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund and The Monument Trust. We are immensely grateful to all the individuals and trusts whose generous charitable support has made this acquisition possible.

More information.

We are delighted to announce The Scottish Cafe and Restaurant at the Scottish National Gallery has won the award for Best Customer Service of the Year at The Scottish Restaurant Awards 2012.

Now in their fifth year the Awards showcase the very best in the country’s restaurant industry, acknowledging  the outstanding creativity, customer service and top quality dining on offer throughout Scotland. The award for Best Customer Service of the Year recognises a restaurant which goes above and beyond to ensure that diners enjoy time spent in their establishment.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce that The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum will host selected works from the critically acclaimed retrospective The Scottish Colourist Series: FCB Cadell.  Approximately 40 works, from both public and private British collections, have been chosen to travel to Dundee for the exhibition which runs from 6 April until 17 June 2012.

This exhibition will feature works illustrating all of Cadell's major themes: he is renowned for his stylish portrayals of Edinburgh New Town interiors and the sophisticated society that occupied them; equally celebrated are his vibrantly coloured, daringly simplified still-lives of the 1920s, and his evocative landscapes of the island of Iona.

The Scottish Colourist Series: FCB Cadell opened at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in October 2011 and will remain on display until 18 March 2012.

The National Galleries of Scotland announces today that James Holloway CBE will retire from his post as Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery at the end of January 2012.  James has held this position since 1997 and led the highly successful project to refurbish and revitalize the Portrait Gallery which reopened on 1st December last year, on time and within budget. Since then over 80,000 visitors have flocked through the doors and the Portrait Gallery has attracted many favourable reviews both nationally and internationally.

More information on the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Tate and National Galleries of Scotland have appointed Amy Dickson as the new Managing Curator of ARTIST ROOMS. Amy Dickson has been an Assistant Curator at Tate Modern since 2005 and started her new role on 9 January 2012. Amy will be based in London and Edinburgh and will manage ARTIST ROOMS, the inspirational collection of modern and contemporary art donated in 2008 by Anthony d’Offay to Tate and National Galleries of Scotland.

View ARTIST ROOMS online.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce a new acquisition, Rome from Monte Mario (1820) by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851).  This stunning watercolour has recently been allocated to the Scottish National Gallery through the Acceptance in Lieu of Tax scheme and will take pride of place in the Gallery’s much-loved 2012 Turner in January exhibition.  Rome from Monte Mario will strengthen this outstanding, annual display, illustrating an aspect of the artist’s work not previously represented.

See Rome from Monte Mario online.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery will open to the public today, following an ambitious £17.6m restoration project. The renowned artist and playwright John Byrne will be the first to enter the building at 10am on 1 December and First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond will declare the Gallery officially open at a ceremony in the afternoon.

This major refurbishment of the Gallery – the first in its 120-year history – has restored much of the architect’s original vision, opening up previously inaccessible parts of the building and increasing the public space by more than 60 percent.  It has also added a range of new facilities that will utterly transform visitors’ experience of the Gallery.  Entry to the new Portrait Gallery will be completely free

More information on the 17 new displays

Lovers of high fashion will get a special preview of the newly refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery a week ahead of the official opening, at an utterly unique event organised in collaboration with Harvey Nichols. This one-off celebration of the Edinburgh store’s autumn/winter collections, at 6.30pm Friday 25 November, will see some of the Gallery's beautifully restored spaces transformed for the evening into a catwalk.

The Gallery opens to the public on Thursday 1 December, following an ambitious £17.6 million refurbishment, and with an entirely new presentation of its world-famous collection. Guests at the fashion show and drinks reception will be among the first to see the magnificent suite of top-lit galleries on the third floor, which has been restored to its intended splendour.  The new display Blazing with Crimson: Tartan Portraits will be a striking backdrop for the season’s styles and designer wear on show.

Tickets for this exclusive event are £25 and available from Customer Services in Harvey Nichols or call 0131 524 8388.

nationalgalleries.org will re-launch today with a new look and a greater focus on the unique aspects of the three galleries across Edinburgh. New features include interactive floorplans and trails, gallery visit hub sections, bringing together information about the range of facilities, events and activities available to visitors, and a completely revised What's On section designed to reflect the breadth of the Galleries’ public programme.

Improvements have been made to the site's usability, and changes made to enhance compatibility with mobile browsing and touchscreen devices, and integrate our social media channels.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is delighted to announce the acquisition of The Mysterious Garden (1911) by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1865-1933). This stunning work is a superb addition to the Gallery’s holding of early twentieth-century Scottish art. The acquisition has been made in celebration of the Gallery’s 50th anniversary which took place in 2010.  The Mysterious Garden was purchased for £230,000 from the Fine Art Society, London with substantial assistance of £115,000 from the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art.

The Mysterious Garden is a rare and beautiful work that shows a woman artist at the forefront of developments in the arts at the beginning of the twentieth century.  First exhibited almost exactly a century ago, in March 1911, at the Royal Scottish Society for Painters in Watercolour in Glasgow, it is one of the artist’s largest independent watercolours. Mackintosh’s masterpiece evokes a dream-like state and seems to render an almost child-like interior world of the imagination. This style is typical of Macdonald Mackintosh’s work and the concerns of other members of the Glasgow School; however it can also be seen as part of a wider symbolist movement across Europe exemplifying the far reaching influence of the Scottish artists at that time.

See The Mysterious Garden in our online collection.

The National Galleries of Scotland has joined 12 other arts organisations to be part of this year’s Culture Hack Scotland. This unique event will bring together Edinburgh’s world-famous festivals and other leading Scottish cultural organisations with software developers and creative technologists to see what amazing new things they can make in just 24 hours. The event is being held in Edinburgh on 6-7 May 2011 for more information visit the Culture Hack Scotland website.

The National Galleries is delighted to announce a £2 million boost from Scottish Government to Portrait of the Nation, the ambitious project to renovate the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.  Transformed by a huge increase in exhibition space and a range of new visitor services, the Gallery will re-open on 30th November 2011.

Thanks to this additional grant, the £17.6 million target for the first phase of the fundraising campaign has now been reached. We are now looking to raise a further £1m to realise the original vision for the project.

The first exhibition to explore Pablo Picasso’s lifelong connections with Britain will be the highlight of the summer season at the Gallery of Modern Art in 2012.  Picasso and Britain will examine Picasso’s evolving critical reputation here and British artists’ responses to his work.

Originating at Tate Britain, this pioneering show marks the first time that the two organisations have collaborated on a major exhibition.

We wish to clarify that recent reports which suggest that the National Galleries of Scotland are poised to spend vast sums of money on signage and branding in Gaelic are entirely misleading.

Like all national bodies in Scotland, we are required by law to carry out a consultation plan as part the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. This consultation is now underway but any measures that we might eventually take forward to promote the Gaelic language will be proportionate, appropriate and covered within our existing budgets.

Please view and feedback on our draft proposals for implementing a Gaelic Language plan here.

A self-portrait by Jack Vettriano will feature in a new display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which is to re-open this autumn after a major refurbishment.

Titled The Weight, the painting depicts the artist sitting in profile in a darkened interior. It was made in 2010, and has been offered on long-term loan to the Gallery by a UK private collector.

Vettriano was born in Fife in 1951, and has shown his work in galleries around the world, with solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and New York.

The £17.6 m project to renovate the SNPG will dramatically increase the amount of exhibition space within the building, and will reinvent the way in which the national collection is displayed, illustrating the richness of Scotland’s culture with a dynamic programme of changing displays.

A new partnership between the National Galleries of Scotland and the People’s Postcode Lottery launched today. To mark the occasion Miss Scotland, Nicola Mimnagh, handed over a cheque for £159,364, the amount raised by People’s Postcode Lottery for the National Galleries of Scotland to date. This important new source of funding will help support new exhibitions and education programmes.

The People’s Postcode Lottery is a charity lottery where members play with their postcodes to win prizes and raise cash for good causes. They have raised over over £7.4 million for Scottish charity partners to date, including the Woodland Trust Scotland, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres, Scottish Wildlife Trust and CHILDREN 1ST.

Find out more about our partnership with the People’s Postcode Lottery.

The Café at the Gallery of Modern Art will be temporarily closed from Monday 17 January to Sunday 6 February inclusive, and the new look Café will re-open on Monday 7 February.

This refurbishment which is being carried out by the Café operators, Heritage Portfolio Ltd, includes the following changes:

• Improvements to the main servery and pay point area
• Increased capacity both internally and externally
• New flooring, ceiling finish, tables, chairs and lighting
• Reconfiguration of customer entrance
• Facelift of toilets

Further details and pictures of the new Café coming soon.

The Dean Gallery Café and the Scottish Cafe and Restaurant remain open as normal.

The National Galleries of Scotland Outreach team are collaborating with the Travelling Gallery to explore what the concept of the ‘nation’ means to young Scots.

The interior of the Travelling Gallery has being completely transformed by the artists using every available surface and combining a range of media including drawing, painting, spray painting, sculpture, paste-ups and projections.

Find out more about this exciting project from 10am – 5pm on Saturday 16th October 2010 when The Travelling Gallery will be outside the National Gallery of Scotland.

Due to gas maintenance work conducted by Scotland Gas Networks, diversions will be in place for vehicles around the Gallery of Modern Art and Dean Gallery from 18th October 2010.

Vehicle access to both the Gallery of Modern Art and Dean Gallery car parks will be maintained via Queensferry Road and Ravelston Dykes. However, vehicle access will not be possible from the Palmerston Place approach from this time.

The no.13 bus route will be diverted via Queensferry Road. The nearest bus stop to the Gallery of Modern Art and Dean Gallery will be at the junction of Queensferry Terrace and Ravelston Dykes.

The work is expected to be complete in early December 2010.

Pedestrian access will not be restricted by this work.

National Galleries of Scotland and Tate are delighted to announce plans for 2011 ARTIST ROOMS tour.

The tour in 2011 will include venues in Dumfries, Hull, Kendal, Kilmarnock, Leeds, Llandudno and Orkney. The Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art, also announced today that, for the third year running, it is sponsoring the UK tour with funding of £250,000 including funds set aside for regional galleries to spend on promotional, community and educational activities.

Find out more about ARTIST ROOMS in your area.

Following on from the success of the 50th anniversary celebrations, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is delighted to announce the key components of the forthcoming public programme for 2011.

There are three major exhibitions are planned: a retrospective of the work of Elizabeth Blackadder will our major summer exhibition at the National Gallery Complex from 2 July – 23 October 2011;  an exhibition of the work of celebrated sculptor Tony Cragg at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art from 30 July – 6 November 2011; and in the first of our Scottish Colourist Series a retrospective of the work of Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell from the 15 October 2011 – 18 March 2012.

Pope Benedict XVI will make an official Papal State visit to Britain for four days, beginning in Edinburgh on 16th September. To mark the occasion there will be a procession at approximately 12.30 taking him from Holyrood, along Regent Road, Princes Street, then to the official residence of Cardinal Keith O’Brien in Morningside.

The National Gallery Complex will be open as usual. However, access may be difficult due to the expected crowds on Princes Street, extensive disruption to public transport, and road closures throughout the city centre.

We recommend visitors to the Galleries approach from the south (coming from the Royal Mile via the Mound) rather than from Princes Street.

There will be very few crossing points available on Princes Street for security reasons. Crossing points will be:

• Waterloo Place
• Waverley Bridge
• Foot of Hanover Street / Royal Scottish Academy
• Kings Stables Road.

Please note:

• There will be no crossing point on the west end of Princes Street, i.e. from the Mound to Kings Stables Road.
• Crossings will not be open at certain times because of the St Ninian’s day parade and the Papal procession.

Princes Street Gardens will be closed from early morning until late afternoon. However, visitors will still have access to the Weston Link entrance to the National Gallery Complex by going through the gate across from the Royal Scottish Academy Building.

There will be no disabled parking at the Mound as the area is being kept clear of vehicles.

Road closures will not restrict access to the Modern Art Galleries, but visitors should be mindful that some routes of travel through the city may not be available.

For more information on the visit and all road closures, see the Edinburgh City Council's page on the Papal Visit.

For information on bus route diversions, see the Lothian Buses page on the Papal Visit.

The National Galleries of Scotland and Tate are delighted to announce that the internationally renowned American artist, Robert Therrien has very generously given two major sculptures to the ARTIST ROOMS collection. These two seminal pieces, No Title (Beard Cart) (2004) and No Title (Stacked Plates) (2010) will significantly enhance the group of five important works by the artist already featured in the ARTIST ROOMS collection that was created by the collector Anthony d’Offay in 2008. The addition of these two gifts establishes a world-class holding of Therrien’s work that will allow visitors around the UK to explore the artist’s remarkable work in even greater depth.

The first of the two sculptures given by Robert Therrien, No Title (Beard Cart) (2004), is one of a series of works in which the artist has incorporated beards of various sizes. This apparently unlikely subject recalls modes of disguise, as well as the bearded men of folklore and children’s stories. The most recent work, No Title (Stacked Plates) (2010), comprises twenty giant beige-coloured plates and bowls stacked to form a precarious tower over two metres high. The plates are modelled on a style of kitchenware found in American roadside diners in the first part of the twentieth century, evoking nostalgia for a lost era, while their larger than life size transforms them into an abstracted sculpture.

A display of Robert Therrien’s work featuring the two gifts will be on show as part of phase three of What you see is where you’re at at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh from 24 July 2010 until early 2011.

2010 marks the 30th anniversary of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). This is a Fund of last resort, providing grants to help acquire the UK’s most precious heritage at risk of loss, as a permanent memorial to those who have given their lives in service to the country.

Since its establishment in 1980, the NHMF has awarded grants totalling just under £300 million to help acquire and preserve national treasures, ranging from historic houses and works of art to our natural, industrial and maritime heritage. Among the 1,200-plus items safeguarded are such national icons as The Flying Scotsman locomotive, Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose, Turner’s The Blue Rigi and, most recently, the Staffordshire Hoard.

The Fund has been exceptional in its generosity to the National Galleries of Scotland, awarding nearly £16 million to help acquire such outstanding works as Antonio Canova’s The Three Graces, Allan Ramsay’s Portrait of Lord Drummore, ARTIST ROOMS (The Anthony d’Offay Collection of modern and contemporary art) and, just last year, Titian’s Diana and Actaeon.

To mark its 30th birthday and acknowledge its invaluable support, the NHMF’s anniversary logo will appear on the gallery labels of all National Galleries of Scotland objects it has helped to acquire.

For further information about the NHMF and its activities, please visit the NHMF website.

Gallery spaces in the Dean Gallery will be closed until Saturday, 10th July in preparation for the Another World exhibition.

Café Newton will be closed from 4pm on Monday 5th July until 10am on Friday 9th July due to refurbishment.

The Dean Gallery shop will remain open as usual throughout this time.

The National Galleries of Scotland regrets any inconvenience caused by these closures.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce that BNY Mellon is to sponsor Impressionist Gardens, this year’s major summer exhibition at the National Gallery Complex in Edinburgh. This will be the first time that BNY Mellon, which recently sponsored The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and his Letters at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, has supported the National Galleries of Scotland.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to have contributed to the making of The Glasgow Boys, a BBC2 production that coincides with the current exhibition, Pioneering Painters at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and our own Drawing Inspiration display at the National Gallery Complex.

A most interesting discovery is detailed in the programme involving an x-ray and a painting from our collection by William York MacGregor, The Vegetable Stall. 

For more information on what was revealed in the painting, check out the Conservation department's project, X-ray of The Vegetable Stall. If you missed it on TV, you can catch The Glasgow Boys again on BBC iPlayer.

Work has begun in Edinburgh this month on an extraordinary multi-part sculptural project by the celebrated British artist Antony Gormley. Commissioned by the National Galleries of Scotland, 6 Times will consist of six life-sized figures positioned between the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the sea.

Four of the figures will be sited in the Water of Leith itself, acting as gauges for the height of the river as it swells and recedes. The figure closest to the sea, at Leith Docks, is now in place and installation of the further figures will take place throughout June.

This will be the first time that a work in the National Galleries’ collection has been permanently located across the city of Edinburgh itself.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce a major new partnership with The High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The Galleries will be sending a series of exhibitions over the next four years to Atlanta and to other institutions in the US to raise the profile of the Galleries and its collection in North America. The Galleries wants to attract attention to the world-class quality of its holdings and to broaden its international base of support. The Galleries also hope to help raise awareness in the US of the importance of Scotland as a centre for the visual arts.

The first exhibition will be “Venetian Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland” and will comprise 13 paintings and 12 drawings from the Galleries collection. This is the first exhibition in a series that will unfold over the next four years. Further touring exhibitions highlighting differing aspects of the National Galleries of Scotland collections are under development.

The National Galleries of Scotland Schools' Programme has received the Sandford Award for Heritage Education; the only independent benchmarking of educational excellence in the heritage sector in the UK.  The award was presented this month to Schools Education Officer, Joanna Mawdsley by the Duke of Wessex at a special ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The Judges praised the National Galleries of Scotland concluding: Central to their schools programmes is a commitment to helping children explore the collections themselves and making them feel confident about their ideas about paintings and artists.  To find out more about our schools programme and other events visit the Education pages of our website.

The National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London are delighted to announce plans for a Scottish tour of Titian’s Diana & Actaeon. This masterpiece was secured for the nation in 2009 with the help of generous contributions from both private and public donations and will now go on public display in three Scottish cities. Those participating are; Aberdeen Art Gallery from 28 May to 27 June, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow from 1 July to 1 August and McManus Galleries, Dundee from 6 August to 5 September.

Diana and Actaeon by Titian was formerly part of the Bridgewater Collection; a collection of paintings on long term loan to the National Gallery of Scotland from the Duke of Sutherland since 1945. The Galleries have also been granted the opportunity to buy a second painting - Diana and Callisto - for a similar amount by 2012.

Allan Ramsay’s iconic portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau has been included in the BBC project A History of the World. This remarkable portrait was created as a gift for the philosopher’s host, after Rousseau was forced to flee the Swiss and French authorities to Britain in 1766. The painting is now on show at the National Gallery of Scotland.

A History of the World is a unique partnership between the BBC, the British Museum and other collections across the UK, including the National Galleries of Scotland. As a part of this project Allan Ramsay’s painting has now been incorporated into the BBC’s digital museum of world history.

The National Gallery of Scotland is delighted to announce that the painting, The Madonna of the Yarnwinder by Leonardo da Vinci will go on display in the Gallery from today. In 2003 it was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle, the Dumfriesshire home of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry. The painting was recovered in 2007.

The Madonna of the Yarnwinder is the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in Scotland and is on loan to the Gallery from the Duke and the Trustees of the Buccleuch Heritage Trust.

A recent article in the British Art Journal by Dr Edward Corp has led curators at the SNPG to re-assess the identity of the sitter in a pastel by Maurice Quentin de la Tour.

The painting was previously thought to depict Prince Charles Edward Stuart.  Both Charles and his younger brother Prince Henry Benedict, who closely resembled each other, sat for the French artist in the mid-1740s, but only the pastel now in question is known to have survived.

In the absence of wholly conclusive evidence, Dr Corp’s new research suggests that it is more likely that our pastel depicts Henry, and the portrait will be appropriately labelled when it goes on display in the refurbished Portrait Gallery, which is due to re-open in autumn 2011.

A new commission by the Scottish Turner prize winning artist Martin Creed has been installed on the front of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The striking blue neon text entitled, Work No. 975 EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT, is positioned along the length of the frieze on the front of the Gallery.

The work is on show as part of What you see is where you’re at, a total re-hang of the gallery to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding, which opens to the public on the 28th November.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce a £2 million boost to its Portrait of the Nation project, the ambitious scheme to transform the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.  This generous award, which has been made by The Monument Trust, a Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust, comes in the week that building contractors moved into the Gallery, and work began in earnest on the refurbishment.

Following on from contributions from other major funders, such as the Scottish Government, which committed £5.1 million in December 2007, and the Heritage Lottery Fund, which confirmed its grant of £4.8 million in March 2009, we have now raised more than 80 percent of the £17.6 million total.

A major work by Turner prize nominated artist Nathan Coley has been installed in the grounds of the Dean Gallery.  Visitors will be confronted by a large illuminated text with the words: ‘THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE’.

The text is attached to a free-standing scaffold, six metres high and six metres wide. The words are divided into three lines, giving them the formal appearance of a poem.

This art work has been installed in advance of the first part of the forthcoming re-hang of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, What you see is where you’re at, which opens on 28th November.

The 53 fantastic winning pieces from this year's Art Competition for Schools will be on display around Scotland as follows:

• 26 October 2009 - 13 January 2010 at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh
• 18 January 2010 - 14 March 2010 at The MacRobert Art Centre, Stirling
• 1 April 2010 - 19 May 2010 at The Lime Tree Gallery, Fort William

If you missed them the first time round, or you are looking for inspiration for this year's competition, come along and see how children from nursery, primary, secondary and special education schools have taken inspiration from the National Galleries of Scotland's collection.

We are delighted to announce a new collaboration with Victor and Carina Contini, the hugely successful partnership that brought the restaurant Centotre to Edinburgh.

The Scottish Café and Restaurant at the National Gallery will celebrate the very best ingredients from Scottish producers and growers, offering delicious, yet affordable food in a wonderful setting.

The restaurant, which, for the first time, will serve breakfast every day from 9.00 am, will open on 19 October 2009, in the National Gallery Complex, on The Mound. The restaurant will also now open for dinner on Saturday evenings.

For more information, see Shopping & Eating at the National Gallery.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce a major new commission by 2009 Turner Prize nominee Richard Wright.

The Stairwells Project will see the internationally acclaimed, Glasgow-based artist make wall-drawings in the stairwells of the Dean Gallery. The project has been made possible by the Scottish Government's Expo Fund, which has announced awards for three new commissions this week.

The Stairwells Project will be Wright's largest artwork to date, and will be completed for the opening of the 2010 Edinburgh Art Festival.

This year, to celebrate the National Gallery of Scotland’s 150th anniversary, we have collaborated with the Saturday Herald Magazine in asking a selection of well-known Scottish public figures to choose their favourite artwork in the Gallery’s collection.

We received enthusiastic responses from a wide variety of famous Scots, including Brian Cox, Michael Russell and Alison Watt.

You can enjoy an eTour of the top ten choices here.

The National Galleries of Scotland Art Competition for Schools 2010 is up and running ready for the start of the new school year.

Now in its seventh year, the competition this year is expected to be bigger than ever.  With categories for all school groups, from primary 1 to senior and special schools, and a group entry category, there is something for everyone.

Full details, teacher notes and images to inspire here.

A spectacular celebration of Spanish culture will bring some Mediterranean colour to Edinburgh this summer, as the National Gallery of Scotland unveils the highlight of its festival programme for 2009.  'The Discovery of Spain' will explore the fascination for Spanish art and culture in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain, with paintings by Velázquez, El Greco, Murillo and Zurbarán forming a dramatic centerpiece for the exhibition.

The work of major British artists, such as Sir David Wilkie, David Roberts, John Phillip and Arthur Melville, who were captivated by the experience of travelling through Spain, will also dominate the show.  

The exhibition can only be seen in Edinburgh, and will include over 130 paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints and photographs. 

The Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution Michael Russell has announced today the appointment of Ben Thomson as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland.

Ben Thomson is the Chairman of Edinburgh-based investment bank Noble Group which he joined in 1990, being Chief Executive from 1997 to 2007.

He is also Chairman of both children’s publisher Barrington Stoke and Reform Scotland, the non party aligned Scottish think tank.

To find out more visit the Scottish Government news website.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the National Galleries of Scotland are delighted to announce that the HLF has confirmed the £4.5m award to support Portrait of the Nation, the imaginative scheme to renovate and rejuvenate the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Scottish Government already announced its support in December 2007 with a grant for £5.1 million.

The HLF grant comes just as the gallery is about to close to the public in order to start the refurbishment process. Join us on 4th and 5th April for a celebratory weekend marking the temporary closure of the gallery as we begin our exciting and ambitious Portrait of the Nation project.

Judging is now complete for the 2009 Inspired? Get Writing! creative writing competition.  927 people submitted prose or poetry all inspired by works in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland.

Hear the winning entries read aloud in front of the pieces that inspired them on Thursday 7 May 2009 in the Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, National Gallery Complex.

This is the fourth year of the competition which is a three-way partnership between National Galleries of Scotland, English Speaking Union and the Scottish Poetry Library.

The National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery, London are delighted to announce that Titian’s Diana and Actaeon has been acquired for the nation from the Duke of Sutherland.

The acquisition has been made possible with the generous contributions from private and public donations, Scottish Government, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Monument Trust, The Art Fund charity and National Gallery, London and National Galleries of Scotland funds.

The tour of ARTIST ROOMS, a unique scheme to bring one of the largest and most imaginative acquisitions of post-war and contemporary art to audiences across Britain, from Bill Viola in Stromness to Joseph Beuys in Bexhill on Sea, is launched today.

Throughout 2009, 18 museums and galleries across the UK will be showing over 30 ARTIST ROOMS from the collection created by the dealer and collector, Anthony d’Offay, and acquired by the nation in February 2008. This is the first time a national collection has been shared and shown simultaneously across the UK, and has only been made possible through the exceptional generosity of independent charity The Art Fund and, in Scotland, of the Scottish Government.

Find out more in the ARTIST ROOMS section of this website.

National Galleries of Scotland has launched a presence for some of the extraordinary works from the Scottish National Photography Collection on photograph sharing website Flickr.

The Commons, a section of the Flickr site whose aim is to bring together 'the hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives', has been live since 2008.  National Galleries of Scotland is now the 18th organisation to have launched a presence there, and the first Scottish organisation to do so.

There are currently just over 100 photographs from the Photography Collection available to view, ranging from portraits of Victorian Scots by Hill and Adamson to images of the Glasgow Exhibition of 1888, to views of fishermen at work on the banks of the Yangtze river in China.

More photographs will be made available over the coming months.

Select here to go to the National Galleries of Scotland's Flickr Commons page.

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce that the Trustees of Miss Agnes H Hunter’s Trust have decided to continue their support of the NGS Education Visual Impairment Programme for the next two years.  Provided for visitors with all levels of visual impairment, this programme provides specifically designed guided tours and workshops, led by trained educators.  Thanks to the Miss Agnes H Hunter’s Trust, which has funded this programme for the last two years, we can continue to provide these sessions free of charge until March 2010. 

If you would like to find out more about our Community Education Programme, please call Mary Kilpatrick, Community Education Officer, on 0131 624 6428.

Miss Agnes H Hunter's Trust is an Edinburgh-based charity funding activities in support of the blind in Scotland, those suffering physical or mental illness or disability, the education and training of disadvantaged people and those charities enquiring into the cause, relief or cure of arthritis, cancer or tuberculosis.

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Mr Herbert Coutts and the reappointment of Mr Charles James Dawnay to the Board of Trustees for the National Galleries of Scotland. Both appointments will be for a four-year term and will run from 1 August 2007 until 31 July 2011.

Herbert Coutts has served in senior local government cultural posts for more than forty years. For the final period of his career, Coutts directed the Capital’s Culture and Leisure Department.

James Dawnay is a member of the National Trust and The National Trust for Scotland. He has been a Director of London’s oldest established fine art consultancy, Gurr Johns, and holds Chairmanships and Directorships with various Trusts in the fields of arts and architecture, museums and finance. He is also a Director of a number of Investment Trust companies.

The National Galleries of Scotland Disability Equality Scheme and Action Plan is now available to view online.

The document aims to show how, through changing attitudes, the development of partnerships and increased expertise, the Galleries can continue to be proactive in recognising and removing the barriers which disabled people face in accessing the National Galleries of Scotland and its collections.

Four new members have joined the Board of Trustees for the National Galleries of Scotland this Spring. Richard Burns and James Knox joined the Board in February, replacing Giles Weaver and Valerie Atkinson. Additionally, Ray Macfarlane and Alasdair Morton joined the Board in March, replacing Gavin Gemmell and Ian McKenzie Smith. Details of all the Trustees can be found in the About Us section of the National Galleries website.