Art in Scotland

Arts and culture is central to all aspects of our lives. A nation's artistic and cultural life says much about its people and the vibrancy and creativity we display across a wide range of art forms quickly dispels the myth of the dour, downbeat Scot. Scotland has a rich heritage of art and culture and today the traditional and the contemporary, the Celtic and the diasporic, all have their place in the fabric of the country. In successive generations, Scotland has produced writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers and dancers whose talents have received both national and international acclaim. Some of these art forms - such as our traditional dance and music - are uniquely Scottish both in style and inspiration and are appreciated chiefly at home. Others - such as theatre, opera and painting - draw on and incorporate influences from elsewhere in the world and consequently receive wider recognition. All, however, have the power to enthral, challenge, provoke and inspire.

Scotland has changed with new immigrants coming from different lands. This has led to a change in the culture, food and lifestyles of the people but it has only served to enrich the land and the lives of the people of Scotland. Scotland is home to the world's largest and most famous festival, the Edinburgh International Festival which showcases and celebrates myriads of art forms. Every year thousands of people from all over the world flock to Edinburgh for the main and fringe festivals. Edinburgh has excellent art galleries and museums with paintings and artefacts by top artists, sculptors and artisans from all over the world. There are more than seventy art festivals held here every year and over a hundred and fifty art galleries open to the public. There are over a hundred museums and twenty theatre groups here. While the traditional art forms are gaining popularity, there is also an increase in the outside influences bringing about changes and enriching the cultural fabric.

 

Art

Since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Scotland has nurtured successive generations of artists who have been ranked alongside the best of their contemporaries worldwide. As we begin a new century, Scottish art is thriving. The country's four art schools continue to initiate experimentation and fresh thinking amongst their graduates across a wide range of media while the major galleries are promoting Scottish art to an unprecedented degree. Major exhibitions provide a welcome platform for almost every aspect of the nation's art history which in turn has ensured that the volatile art market has kept pace with it. Scottish art is thus the focus of greater debate, analysis and public interest than at any time in recent memory.

 

Music

The music of Scotland exists in many forms. Through the summer tourists are regaled with traditional sounds of the bagpipes, highland music and dance. A number of pop and rock groups of Scotland have gained international status and popularity. They all coexist in harmony in Scotland, a happy phenomenon seen in all other art forms as well. If music is the food of love, then the Scots are true romantics with a wide and varied diet! Whatever the style - whether the orchestral swell of James McMillan's classical work, the lyrical fluency of Dougie McLean's ballads, Blazing Fiddles' irresistably foot-tapping reels and jigs, or the singalong rockabilly of The Fratellis  - music is a vital part of the nation's cultural life. It's celebrated across the country and throughout the year in large-scale gatherings like the Gaelic Mod, T in the Park or the Edinburgh International Festival, busy concerts at the Usher Hall or the Royal Concert Hall or more intimately in pubs, clubs and howffs in every town and village.

 

Opera

In Scotland, as elsewhere throughout the UK, opera is enjoying unprecedented audiences and attention, due largely to performances on television and well publicised commercial recordings of the classics. There are a variety of companies - professional, semi-professional, academic, and amateur - who perform regularly throughout the country. Scottish Opera is Scotland’s national opera company and the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. It was founded by Sir Alexander Gibson in 1962 and was inaugurated with a production of Madama Butterfly at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow. In 1974 Scottish Opera purchased the Theatre Royal Glasgow, which reopened in 1975 as Scotland’s first national opera house. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera was founded in 1980.

 

Dance

Since the 18th century, dance has always had an important place at all levels of Scottish society and even today, it is still very much a living tradition, whether in the exuberant freeform of the local ceilidh, the more structured and graceful sets of the Scottish country dancers, or the balletic precision of the solo Highland dancers. While such traditional forms of dance are uniquely Scottish, they are known and loved throughout the world, having been carried everywhere that the ex-pat Scot settled. And whether they've been adapted locally or remain pure to their source, they all retain the infectious enthusiasm and sociability that draws people from all backgrounds and walks of life. The country also boasts its own national ballet company and a variety of professional modern dance troupes who blend and adapt wide-ranging international influences for a distinctively Scottish idiom.

 

Literature

Scotland has long been recognised as a breeding ground for world-class wordsmiths. Quite what the creative impulse has been which has seen successive generations produce writers and poets of the calibre of Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Muriel Spark, Naomi Mitchison, Iain Banks, Sorley Maclean and Alasdair Gray is impossible to say. What is certain is that the continuing culture of creativity, innovation and experimentation that encourages such talents will ensure that there will always be a new chapter added to Scotland's rich literary heritage.

 

It does not matter how often you may have visited this mystic land, Scotland always has a new aesthetic experience to offer. Novices and aficionados delight alike in the sensual pleasures of Scotland.