December 2026
December opens The Art of Commemoration inside Edinburgh Castle and gives Gwen John her last full month at Modern Two. Roman Scotland is on at the National Museum, Mr Darcy's lake shirt hangs at Dovecot, and Collective's new-artist show closes on Calton Hill on the 20th. Most galleries shut at five; the light goes before four.
National War MuseumOpens 5 December
Alice Meredith Williams's cast iron sample angels are here; the casket they decorate, holding the names of Scotland's First World War dead, is a short walk away in the Memorial. Drawings and archives trace its ten-year making.
National Galleries Scotland: Modern (Modern One & Modern Two)Until 4 January
The same woman in the same wicker chair, five times, and you start hunting for what changed. The Scotsman gave this retrospective five stars and called the work restrained, with "no easy answers". One for slow lookers.
National Museum of ScotlandUntil 18 April
The sun god on one altar is carved so a lamp behind the stone lit up his eyes, mouth and rays. Both altars come from Inveresk, by Musselburgh, site of the most northerly known temple to Mithras.
Dovecot StudiosUntil 16 January
The white shirt Colin Firth wore coming out of the lake in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice hangs among 60 years of Cosprop costumes. The Wee Review called it "a rare treat". For anyone raised on Sunday-night period drama.
National Galleries Scotland: PortraitUntil 11 April
Jude Bytheway's cyclist, face caked in mud straight off the race, is one of 187 works picked from nearly 2,500 entries. Established artists hang beside first-timers, and 60 phone portraits by people across Scotland play on a screen.
CollectiveCloses 20 December
In the old observatory dome, a sculpture of real human hair lies asleep on latex, and breathes. Four early-career artists based in Scotland show new work.
CollectiveFree
New film, sculpture and site-specific printmaking by early-career Scotland-based artists Huss Al-Chokhdar, Hetal Chudasama, Gianni Esporas and Abi Lewis.
Dynamic Earth
A year of activities marking 300 years since the birth of James Hutton, father of modern geology and of "Deep Time", including the Scotland's Time Lords gallery.
Museum of EdinburghFree
Marking 30 years since UNESCO listed Edinburgh's Old and New Towns, with artworks by a Primary 4 class from Granton Primary School made with artist Stephanie Walker after visiting the museum and the Old Town.
Dovecot Studios
Costumes, accessories and sketches from London costume house Cosprop, founded by John Bright in 1965, from Pride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey and A Room with a View.
Talbot Rice GalleryFree
International group show on living through the breakdown of systems, as artists confront generative AI, neo-colonialism, war and climate change, insisting no condition is permanent.
City Art Centre
Retrospective of Edinburgh abstract artist Kenneth Dingwall's 60-year career: around 70 drawings, paintings, prints and constructions, some never shown before.
Dovecot StudiosFree
A full-size print of the Bayeux Tapestry unrolled across Dovecot's Balcony Gallery, the first time its full scale is shown in Scotland, with insight from the British Museum.
City Art Centre
Major solo show of Aberdeen-based printmaker Ade Adesina: monumental woodcuts, etchings and linocuts on climate change and colonial histories, plus a new Edinburgh commission.
National Galleries Scotland: Portrait
The Scottish Portrait Awards come to the Portrait for the first time: fine art, photography and Scotland Now! phone portraits by artists born, living or studying in Scotland.
National Museum of Scotland
Rome's most northerly frontier brought to life, centred on finds from the Inveresk fort, including two altars from the world's most northerly Mithraeum shown for the first time.
National Museum of ScotlandFree
Over 200 objects trace conflict in prehistoric Scotland from the Neolithic to Rome, including six Bronze Age shields and the richest Iron Age warrior burial yet found.
City Art CentreFree
Recent gifts and bequests to the city's Scottish art collection: paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs by Barns-Graham, Bellany, Crowe, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jessie M. King and more.
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.
