After many buses and many miles the Travelling Gallery hits milestone...
The council's mobile art space, the Travelling Gallery, is celebrating 30 years of taking contemporary art to the furthest reaches of Scotland with a new exhibition that, fittingly, explores our relationship with the sea and coastline.
The Travelling Gallery service was launched in 1978 to help make contemporary art more easily accessible to schools and communities around the country.
Since then, the specially built gallery in a bus has travelled throughout Scotland every year, providing the opportunity to experience exhibitions by both Scottish and international artists.
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In that time the bus has taken nearly 100 different exhibitions, featuring more than 500 artists, to schools and communities in all areas of the country.
Artists who have exhibited in the gallery include Anthony Gormley, Douglas Gordon, David Shrigley, Zoe Walker, Ross Sinclair, Callum Innes, Claire Barclay and Christine Borland, many of whom were exhibited as recent graduates and have gone on to achieve internationally successful careers.
The latest exhibition, On Edge, features a varied group of artists including photographs by Thomas Joshua Cooper, a distinctive sound based work by Dalziel and Scullion, alongside sculpture, photography and video based works by four other artists.
What may have seemed rather outlandish to many communities in 1978 is now a welcome visitor and a much appreciated part of Scotland's cultural life.
As curator Alison Chisholm explained, a key element of the gallery's success is the education programme that runs as an integral part of all the exhibitions.
"Over 75 per cent of our visitors are children and it's often their first experience in an art gallery. So, each exhibition has its own education programme which includes talks and workshops.
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"It takes sometimes quite challenging art and makes it accessible and enjoyable to all our audiences."
Long trips along single track roads (and stormy ferry journeys in order to reach some of its more remote parking spots) takes its toll. The Scottish Arts Council funded Gallery is now in its third vehicle, with the latest custom-built bus launched last year.
From its base at Edinburgh's City Art Centre, the gallery currently takes two exhibitions of contemporary art on tour for 16 weeks at a time in spring and autumn.
The gallery tours On Edge from 23 August in Penicuik and will then visit schools, colleges and public venues across Scotland until 5 December.