BY KIRSTY WATT
‘Art in a Bus’, Scotland’s travelling art gallery, brought the ‘wow’ factor to youngsters in Skye and Lochalsh last week with their technology-inspired exhibition on wheels.
The Travelling Gallery, which has been bringing contemporary art exhibitions to communities across Scotland since 1978, was toured by high school and primary pupils, as well as members of the general public, when it pulled up in Plockton on Tuesday 12th May, and in Portree on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th May.
Featuring the work of five artists, MV Brown, Nina Davies, Gavin Gayagoy, Hardeep Pandhal and Gregor Wright, this year’s exhibition was titled ‘real-life friction’ and explored our relationship with the technological world.
Jo Arksey, Travelling Gallery learning and engagement officer, told the Free Press: “[This year’s] exhibition is almost all digital artwork and is dark inside, so it has a bit of a wow factor!
“The gallery is quite a unique experience: because it’s in a bus, it’s very unintimidating – a bus is something most people are quite familiar with – but inside it’s a custom-built gallery.
“The art is contemporary and is always quite unusual; very rarely are there paintings on a wall so it’s something very different from what the pupils have done in their art classes. And although they perhaps can’t do [this type of art] in school, it makes them realise if they want to become an artist, there are all sorts of different things they might be able to do.
“We’ve certainly had a lot of people coming back to us over the years who have said if the bus hadn’t come to their school, they wouldn’t have become an artist or gone to art college.”
The gallery is curated like a national exhibition, with no specific audience in mind, and visits everywhere from nurseries to care homes as it tours the country.
Jo said: “Engaging with contemporary artworks can often encourage a different way of thinking and therefore can offer an exciting approach to learning. We find it can be an experience that is both challenging and enjoyable at any age!
“[The artwork] is able to bring up really challenging subjects in a creative and fun way – it’s not like sitting down [with pupils] and saying we are going to talk about digital technology – and we often find pupils that are normally quite shy or quiet are actually quite chatty about artwork because it’s something where there is no right or wrong.”
Atlas Arts, who booked the bus to come to Skye and Lochalsh this May, have now signed a three-year partnership with the Travelling Gallery, ensuring the bus’s return to the area next year.
As well as tours of the exhibition, the Travelling Gallery organises workshops and talks with artists and Jo said they are always keen to hear from local artists who may be interested in running a workshop with them.
The Travelling Gallery is a not-for-profit organisation funded by Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Fund 2025-2028 and is part of Culture Edinburgh.
