Exhibitions in Edinburgh

Dynamic Earth

October family trail through the galleries uncovering the science behind dragons, kelpies and werewolves, ending with colour-changing potion-making in the café.

Collective · Free

New film, sculpture and site-specific printmaking by early-career Scotland-based artists Huss Al-Chokhdar, Hetal Chudasama, Gianni Esporas and Abi Lewis.

Camera Obscura & World of Illusions

Spooky-not-scary takeover: a Haunting Halloween Hunt for mascot Dizzy in five monster guises, ghostly projections, scary portraits and live witch and mad-scientist characters on selected afternoons and evenings.

Museum of Edinburgh · Free

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.

Talbot Rice Gallery · Free

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.

Museum of Edinburgh · Free

Photography and film by five young people in kinship care, made over a 12-week multimedia programme — close observation of details we usually overlook, from perspectives often seen but rarely heard.

City Art Centre · Free

Celebrates the bequest that bought 1,000+ artworks for Edinburgh, with works by Fergusson, Redpath, Eardley, Paolozzi, Blackadder and Alison Watt. Part of RSA200.

National War Museum · Free

How WWII military maps became personal keepsakes: silk escape-and-evade maps, aerial photography, war diaries and a dress made from escape maps. Final weeks.

Fruitmarket · Free

Major show by London-based Irish sculptor Eva Rothschild across all three galleries: bronze, plaster, steel and concrete works staging bodily encounters with space.

Jupiter Artland

Irish artist Sgàire Wood's Steadings Gallery commission turns heraldic beasts and pop-culture icons into a frank but hopeful look at heritage, tradition and violence.

Stills: Centre for Photography · Free

First major survey of documentary and portrait photographer Jillian Edelstein, spanning four decades of everyday lives and pivotal historical moments.

National Galleries Scotland: Portrait · Free

Over 50 photographs and digital animations (1995-2018) by Wendy McMurdo on childhood, learning and computers, including never-before-seen work. Her biggest show to date.

Edinburgh Printmakers · Free

Jamie Fitzpatrick probes Edinburgh's statues, monuments and civic decoration through bronze-pigment screenprints and sculptures that puncture monumental authority.

Edinburgh Printmakers · Free

Berlin-based Ukrainian duo Etchingroom1 (Kristina Yarosh and Anna Khodkova) present whimsical, socially sharp etchings, sculpture and mixed media about love, death and money.

Dynamic Earth

Seasonal live planetarium show: in-house astronomers replay the recent eclipse, tour the autumn constellations and fly to the heart of the Milky Way.

National Galleries Scotland: National

Nearly 80 photographic portraits spanning 30 years by American artist Catherine Opie, her first solo show in Scotland, touring from London's NPG. At the Royal Scottish Academy.

Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh · Free

Seeing soil through art: 30+ artists mark 300 years since geologist James Hutton's birth with paintings, sculpture, ceramics and photography on the living ground beneath our feet.

Dovecot Studios · Free

Still lifes, botanical studies and prints by Elizabeth Blackadder alongside tapestries and rugs from her 50-year collaboration with Dovecot, incl. the new rug The Red Bouquet.

Surgeons' Hall Museums

A 70-minute guided walk through the Old Town — chloroform tea parties, pioneering women, grave robbing and Burke and Hare — with museum entry included. Weekends at 14:00 to 29 November 2026; age 10+.

The Writers' Museum · Free

Writing produced in creative workshops responding to objects from the city's collections, shown alongside the museum's literary displays.

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.

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.

National Museum of Scotland · Free

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 Centre · Free

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.