Scottish glasshouses which survived bombing during World War Two inspire touring art exhibition

The exhibition is part of the Travelling Gallery, which takes exhibitions around Scotland

An art exhibition inspired by recently de-commissioned Scottish glasshouses which survived bombing during World War Two is to tour Scotland.

The work explores the ideologies and histories of the glasshouses in St Andrews Botanic Gardens through moving-image, writing and archival materials.

The collaborative work by artists Rachel McBrinn and Alison Scott was made following a period of research and development at St Andrews Botanic Garden where they have been artists-in-residence.

Research images for the art exhbition. | Travelling Gallery

Centred around their film, After Glass, that weaves together both archival and found footage with their own research imagery, the exhibition unpicks the different ways in which glasshouses have been employed to display, preserve, contain and eradicate particular species and narratives.

Travelling Gallery

At times the narrative draws on historical events relating to glasshouses, including the suffragette act of protest at Kew Gardens in 1913, or the bombing of the glasshouses in St Andrews in 1940, using fiction to expand upon the historical record. Sometimes the scenes are personal or like a diary entry, with accounts referencing Ms McBrinn and Ms Scott’s visits to both St Andrews and Edinburgh’s botanical gardens.

Accompanying the film are three framed botanical samples from the herbarium archive at the St Andrews Botanic Garden; a sago palm and two orchids. Both plant species are mentioned in the film - the Cycas Revoluta (sago palm) being one of the plants that survived the 1940 bombing - acting as both evidence and witness to the narrative they portray.

Anchoring the work are the film rushes from a 1970s news report of a beauty pageant held at Kibble Palace, Glasgow, sponsored by the milk board, with the glasshouses there central to the scene.

The Travelling Gallery takes art exhibitions around Scotland in a bus. | Edinburgh Council

The exhibition is to tour Scotland as part of the Travelling Gallery’s programme, which has been bringing exhibitions to communities throughout Scotland since 1978 and is known as a “contemporary art gallery in a bus“.

Louise Briggs, curator of the Travelling Gallery, said: “We are delighted to be working with Rachel and Alison on this exhibition and to be presenting the creative outcomes of their research and time spent at St Andrews Botanic Gardens. This exhibition launches our 2025 programme, with our exhibitions this year themed around the environment and climate emergency.

“All the artists and partners we plan to work with this year are thinking through ecological issues as well as our relationship with, and connection to, nature, often doing so in unexpected ways, which we hope will be of interest to our audiences, encouraging them to perhaps think about nature, the world and our interconnectedness in different ways.”

Val Walker, convenor of the culture committee at Edinburgh Council, which supports the Travelling Gallery programme, said: “It’s fantastic to see season one of the 2025 Travelling Gallery begin this month.

“Through their compelling exploration of the glasshouse as both a physical and symbolic structure, Rachel McBrinn and Alison Scott invite us to reflect on the complex histories of power, privilege, and environmental stewardship.”

Launching in Edinburgh at the Collective Gallery, Calton Hill on Friday, the exhibition will tour to arts venues, community centres, high streets and schools across Scotland, including in Dundee and Angus, Aberdeen, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Midlothian, Orkney and the Highlands.