City Art Centre
Address: 2 Market Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1DE
The City Art Centre is an art gallery and exhibition centre located opposite Waverley Station on Market Street in Edinburgh. The nine storey building was constructed in 1902. Originally as a warehouse for the Scotsman newspaper and later becoming a wholesale fruit and vegetable market. It has been a gallery since 1980, when the collection moved from its previous location in the former Royal High School. In the 1990s it was extended to add further floors. Today, the gallery hosts a busy programme of exhibitions over six floors of light and airy gallery space.
The permanent collection features over 4500 works, including drawings and paintings, prints, photography, sculpture and installation art, covering many important art movements such as The Glasgow Boys, The Scottish Colourists and The Edinburgh School. Exhibitions change regularly on a rolling schedule, showcasing new local and international work and touring displays of photography, art and design, architecture and the built environment.
5 things to do at City Art Centre
- See the permanent collection, including works by leading Scottish artists from the 17th century until the present day.
- See the latest in a regularly changing programme of temporary exhibitions, presenting a wide variety of subjects and interests from contemporary art and design to architecture and the built environment.
- Visit Mimi’s Bakehouse on the ground floor, a café specialising in cakes to take away, along with a handpicked selection of all-day brunch and lunch dishes to sit-in.
- Browse the shop, which sells a great selection of art-themed gifts and souvenirs, books, postcards and jewellery.
- Enter the City Art Centre’s scientific playground for two weeks every year, during the Easter holidays, as the centre hosts the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
