King of arts with a vivid background

EVER since taking up his new post as director of modern and contemporary art at the National Galleries of Scotland, Simon Groom has been a very busy man.

Today, however, he's flustered because it has taken him 15 minutes longer than it once did when he was an energetic Edinburgh University student to walk from the city centre to the Gallery of Modern Art at Belford Road. "It must be my age," puffs the 41-year-old as he arrives in his book-lined office.

While his student days may be long behind him, over the years, Simon's memories of Edinburgh have remained fond and he is more than happy to be back, pounding familiar streets once more. Working at a gallery that he visited regularly as a student means he's come full circle.

"Edinburgh is absolutely fantastic and I owe it so much," he enthuses. "It's always a surprising place and there's a distinctness of identity and culture.

"It was very different to all the different cultures I experienced when I was growing up and to be here felt very solid and secure."

Indeed, Simon has come a long way since graduating from the Christ's Hospital charitable boarding school in Sussex. He was sent there at the age of 11, shortly after his father died – a tragedy that left his mum struggling with the financial burden of bringing up two sons.

"She was desperately trying to bring up me and my brother and getting odd jobs wherever she could . . . it must have been tough for her at that time," he says.

To Simon, it was his school days that paved the way for the successes to come. He recalls of his school: "It was a fantastic place where you had to wear yellow socks and grey breeches and a long blue gown – it was 16th century uniform in the 20th century.

"We didn't pay a penny because the school was about helping those who came from economically deprived backgrounds and broken homes. I felt very fortunate growing up there and it gave me the kind of springboard I needed to get to a place at a university like Edinburgh."

After graduating with a degree in English Literature, Simon decided to indulge a desire to see the world and, after visiting The Filmhouse and seeing the Akira Kurosawa film Ran – a reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear set in feudal Japan – he knew exactly where he wanted to be.

Simon spent a year teaching in Japan where, randomly, he developed a fear of flying and so his return to Europe became both lengthy and adventurous and saw him experiencing civil unrest in South Korea and flooded roads in Taiwan. A crossing of the South China Sea by boat took him to Hong Kong and then to China – "the most beautiful place I've ever been to" – before the Trans-Siberian Express finally spirited him from Beijing to Moscow.

Eventually he ended up in Florence where a break of a few days turned into a three-year experience.

Recalling his early days in the Italian city, Simon, who now lives in the New Town, recalls: "I did anything I could to earn a living because I had no money – teaching English, taking very rich ladies out and walking them around town.

"That year, luckily, it was the fashion to have a private foreign tutor, while the year before it might have been owning a little Chihuahua," he jokes.

His well-spoken lilt, also secured him the occasional spot of acting in radio plays while, most randomly of all, Simon also found himself the centre of attention at a torchlit city centre fashion photo shoot, modelling for a top name designer – one which is he is too coy to disclose.

"It was one of the big names in fashion clothing who thought that it was a good idea to pull the ugly and dispossessed off the street and so I was one of these people who got to put on these amazing clothes and walk up and down," he laughs. "It was a one-off but I did have it on my CV for a while because I thought it would get me an interview. It never did."

It was in Florence that he secured a position as a lecturer at the city university's philosophy department – and lodgings in a home that once belonged to the uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte.

But surrounded by some of the most elaborate and historical works of art in the world, Simon also developed an interest and so, incredibly, he threw in the towel and returned to his mother's home in London, where he became an impoverished art student.

While completing his PhD at the Courtauld Institute, Simon met his wife Sorcha, now lead curator of the Liverpool Biennial contemporary art festival. While she is committed to the project until September, Simon hopes Sorcha will eventually join him in Edinburgh. "Until then, I can't complain, I've got the cat," he laughs.

Simon's first break in the art world was as an exhibitions organiser at the Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge. He then went on to spend four years at the prestigious Tate Liverpool gallery where he eventually became head of exhibitions – a job that saw him become curator of the controversial Turner Prize. He was also instrumental in helping the gallery prepare for Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture. He admits it's "tragic" not to be in Liverpool, the city of his birth, during this year's cultural celebrations but he says the job at the National Galleries was too good an opportunity to miss.

"A job like this one here comes up once in a lifetime," says Simon. "In this case, I really didn't think I had a hope in hell of getting it but I thought I would always kick myself afterwards if I didn't try. So when they offered the job to me, I was absolutely amazed.

"It's a great gamble (for the Galleries], exactly as it was a great gamble taking me on at Kettle's Yard, and I can think of a lot of people who have got a lot more experience in terms of years and solid track record," he adds.

Now he's in post, Simon, who believes the art world needs to distance itself from its highbrow image, hopes to use his talents to ensure the Capital's collection of contemporary art is accessible to all. Planning will also begin to help the gallery to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2010.

He says: "A lot of the artists who have been prominent from the 1990s, most of them are working class. Twenty years ago it was different but now contemporary art is being made by people who aren't privileged. There's no such thing as elitist art or exclusive art and I believe passionately that art is for everybody."

THE HOME OF MODERN MARVELS

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art first opened in August 1960 at Inverleith House in Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden. It moved to its present site on Belford Road in 1984.

The gallery is housed in an imposing neo-classical building that was designed by William Burn in 1825 and was once home to John Watson's School, originally an institute for fatherless children.

Simon Groom was appointed as director of modern and contemporary art at the National Galleries and took up his post just before the end of last year.

His predecessor, Richard Calvocoressi, had been in charge at the Gallery of Modern Art since 1987 and left to become director of the Henry Moore Foundation, a charity based in Hertfordshire that aims to promote public appreciation of the fine arts.