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Travelling Gallery
Travelling Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in a custom-built bus, which has provided a national service to communities throughout Scotland since 1978. Travelling Gallery is regularly funded by Creative Scotland and run by the City of Edinburgh Council. The gallery is based at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh.

History
The Travelling Gallery was established by the Scottish Arts Council (now Creative Scotland) in 1978.

The first vehicle was a converted double decker bus which was staffed by a Curator/Driver. In 1983 the Scottish Arts Council commissioned, at a cost of £60,000, a custom built vehicle which remained in use until 2007,and employed a Curator and Assistant, together with a Driver/Guide employed on a casual basis for each tour.

Two exhibitions were organised each year and during the winter months the gallery was available for hire by other organisations to tour their own exhibitions.

In 1996 the Scottish Arts Council sought applications from other organisations or individuals to take over the running of the Travelling Gallery, with funding from Scottish Arts Council. The City of Edinburgh Council was the successful applicant and in April 1997 ownership of the vehicle was transferred and a 3 year funding plan agreed.

In 2006 Travelling Gallery was granted lottery funding of £173,500 through Scottish Arts Council, plus £100,000 from City of Edinburgh Council and additional funding from the ADAPT Trust and Friends of the City Art Centre in order to research, develop and build a new vehicle to replace the gallery built in 1983. The current Travelling Gallery vehicle began service in 2007.

Exhibitions and partnerships
Artist who have shown solo exhibitions in the gallery include Ross Sinclair, Rachel MacLean, David Finn, Gordon Douglas, Illana Halperin, Lauren Printy Curry, Kimio Tsuchiya, Zoe Walker and Dalziel and Scullion.

Exhibitions have included work from both Scottish artists, such as Mandy McIntosh, Jonathan Owen, Alberta Whittle, Tessa Lynch and David Shrigley, and International artists such Halil Altindere, Shaun Gladwell, Amalia Pica, Sachiko Abe and Gerd Rohling.

Travelling Gallery has toured several exhibitions in partnership with other organisations, including The Park in 2001 with Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, Wish I Was Here in 2001 and Impossible Nation in 2010 with Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Alt-W Shortcuts in 2012 and Alt-W Blush Response in 2016 with New Media Scotland, Eyes on the Prize in 2015, with Tramway Glasgow as part of the Turner Prize events programme , Design in Motion in 2015 in partnership with V&A Dundee, and Her body remembered a night-blooming cereus, sweated industry and salt (what came near) in 2017 with Glasgow Women’s Library.

Touring
Travelling Gallery currently tours two exhibitions each year. Tours usually last around 15 weeks. The gallery visits venues such as town centres, community and resource centres, schools, colleges, hospitals and prisons. Venues visited are located throughout Scotland in cities, towns and rural locations, particularly those without contemporary art provision.

The current vehicle
The current Travelling Gallery vehicle began service in 2007. It is a custom built single-storey unit based on a Scania Omni Dekka 12 metre chassis. The body work was built by East Lancashire Coachbuilders in Blackburn and the interior was fitted out by WH Bence Coachworks in Yate near Bristol. The interior was designed by Sutherland Hussey Architects in Edinburgh.

The current vehicle has had three exterior vinyl wraps since it was built in 2007. The first artwork was created by Glasgow based artist Mandy McIntosh. The second was commissioned by V&A Dundee for the ‘Design in Motion’ partnership in 2015, and featured an image of William Morris’s Strawberry Thief and the new V&A Dundee Museum. The current wrap was created by Clackmannanshire based artist Mike Inglis.

The second vehicle
The second Travelling Gallery vehicle was commissioned in 1983 and was a custom-built single-storey unit based on a Leyland Olympian bus chassis. Its height of 12’8’’ was slightly lower than an actual double decker.

The first vehicle
The first Travelling Gallery vehicle, which began the service in 1978, was a converted Glasgow Corporation Bus, and was designed by James Grimes and William May. The coachwork was done by JC Bennett and Company of Glasgow. Aberdeen based artist Arthur Watson designed the exterior paintwork of the vehicle.