In 2026, the Royal Scottish Academy, one of the oldest and most prestigious cultural institutions in Scotland, will be 200 years old. Celebrations will be nationwide and involve hundreds of artists, partners, galleries and institutions across the country, in Scotland as well as across the UK. It is set to be the widest reaching project ever of its type in the UK with over 100 museums, galleries, and other cultural partners coming together to celebrate and the Scottish Maritime Museum will be joining the celebration with a special exhibition opening on 1st February.
Tides of Time, opening in the Museum’s Linthouse building on Irvine Harbourside, will explore how Scotland’s seas and coastlines have stirred the imagination of artists across generations.
The thoughtfully curated exhibition will bring together artwork by nine distinguished Royal Scottish Academicians who share a deep connection to Scotland’s maritime heritage. Artwork by John Bellany HRSA, Joan Eardley RSA, Ian Fleming RSA, Ian Hamilton Finlay RSA and Sylvia Wishart RSA will be displayed, alongside work by current Academicians Joyce W. Cairns PPRSA, Kate Downie RSA, Will Maclean RSA and Arthur Watson PPRSA.
Tides of Time will include John Bellany’s deeply personal works shaped by his childhood growing up in a fishing community, moving sculptural pieces by Ian Hamilton Finlay and Will Maclean and striking contemporary paintings, drawings and mixed media by Kate Downie.
As well as works drawn from the Museum’s national art collection, visitors will enjoy two artworks by Joyce W. Cairns on loan from the Royal Scottish Academy as part of RSA200: Celebrating Together.
Eva Bukowska, Exhibitions and Events Officer at the Scottish Maritime Museum, says:
We’re thrilled to take part in RSA200: Celebrating Together with our Tides of Time exhibition which celebrates the enduring influence of the sea on Scottish artistic expression.
“This collaboration gives us a wonderful opportunity to display pieces from our own national art collection alongside works from the RSA that many of our visitors may not have seen before.
“Together, these exceptional artworks will appeal not only to art lovers but to everyone interested in Scotland’s maritime heritage.”
Kate Downie RSA adds:
It is an honour and a pleasure to collaborate once again with the Scottish Maritime Museum and to be included in this wonderful group of nine artists from the RSA, both historic and contemporary. What unites us is our shared fascination with Scottish coastal waters and those curious edges where our land meets the sea.
“My two latest works, created in 2022, were inspired by one of the most important residencies of my life: ‘The Outside Edge’ artist exchange on the wild southern edge of Mull in 2019.
“These diary-apron paintings are among my most ambitious watercolour/collages, each forming a narrative of remembered events and place from collaborative adventures with my three fellow artists on the residency: Beijing/ Kunming artists, Ju Hong Shen and Dr Xu Yun, and English land artist Helen Goodwin.
“Introducing artists from another culture to these rugged Scottish seascapes and islands through the William Gilles RSA Travel Award funded project helped me to appraise the landscape through fresh eyes.
“The works were created in my Fife studio during a ‘virtual residency’ exchange that continued between the four of us during lockdown. They have been exhibited only once before, at the RSA in November 2022.”
Sandy Wood, Head of Collections at the RSA, says:
“2026 will be a joyful celebration that honours the history of the Royal Scottish Academy and looks forward to a promising future. The year-long celebration will help connect and celebrate RSA artists and architects, as well as established and emerging artists who have been part of the RSA family over the last 200 years. We’re delighted that so many cultural organisations across Scotland are joining the party and we’re looking forward to celebrating together in 2026.”
The Royal Scottish Academy was founded in 1826 to support artists and architects and promote art and architecture in Scotland. They are an independent, non-governmental charitable institution led by Academicians. Royal Scottish Academicians are prominent artists and architects elected by their peers who govern the RSA on a democratic basis. The RSA run a year-round programme of exhibitions, artist opportunities and events from their base at The Mound in Edinburgh. The RSA holds an historic collection recognised as being of National Significance to Scotland.
The ambitious anniversary project is designed to bring partners and communities together to celebrate the cultural history, presence and influence of the RSA and its Academicians across Scotland. The year-long celebration will help connect and celebrate RSA artists, architects and established and emerging artists who have been part of the RSA family both historically and now. The celebration will stretch across the whole of 2026 and reach all regions of Scotland and beyond.
RSA200: Celebrating Together is supported by Museums Galleries Scotland.
Tides of Time is included in Museum admission and runs until 26 April.
www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org
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Issued on behalf of the Scottish Maritime Museum by
Joanna Harrison, Mobile: 07884 187404
