City Art Centre
2 Market Street, Edinburgh
Located in the heart of the capital, with six exhibition galleries, the City Art Centre is Scotland’s emporium of the visual arts. It is both home of the City’s collection of Scottish Art, and one the UK’s leading temporary exhibition spaces.
Since opening in 1980, the City Art Centre has mounted a huge range of exhibitions, from rare Egyptian antiquities to the most innovative contemporary art, from Michelangelo drawings to Star Trek.
The scale and range of the programme has made the gallery one of Britain’s most visited exhibition centres. The City’s fine art collection consists of around 3,500 works of Scottish art: paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture and tapestries, including works by McTaggart, Fergusson, Peploe and Eardley.
Through purchase funds provided by the Jean E Watson Bequest, the collection has been kept up-to-date, by the acquisition of works by contemporary Scottish artists, including Davie, Blackadder, Paolozzi and Bellany.
In 1997, the collection was further enriched by a substantial gift from the Scottish Arts Council. The holdings also include topographical views of Edinburgh and portraits. Exhibitions drawn from the collection are a regular feature of the City Art Centre’s programme.
The City Art Centre’s licensed café can provide you with a cup of tea or coffee, or a three-course meal.