October 2026
October opens two shows late in the month: The Rupture at Talbot Rice on 24 October and Tai Shani's M.I.A.S.M.A. at Jupiter Artland on the 29th. Gwen John's first major retrospective in over forty years runs at the Modern, and Eva Rothschild's sculpture fills Fruitmarket until 11 October.
Permanent guide to October 2026 →
Talbot Rice Gallery · Opens 24 October
An international group show on living through breakdown, with artists taking on generative AI, neo-colonialism, war and climate change. It opens 24 October inside Robert Adam and Playfair's Old College. Free.
Jupiter Artland · Opens 29 October
Turner Prize winner Tai Shani's major show, co-commissioned with Kunsthalle Bern, the Busan Biennial and Groninger Museum. It opens 29 October, days before the park switches to Thursday-to-Sunday winter hours.
National Galleries Scotland: Modern (Modern One & Modern Two) · Until 4 January
The first major Gwen John retrospective in over forty years, marking 150 years since her birth, with rarely seen drawings and watercolours alongside the paintings. At Modern Two.
National Galleries Scotland: National · Until 1 November
Nearly 80 photographic portraits from 30 years of Catherine Opie's work, her first solo show in Scotland, touring from London's National Portrait Gallery. October is its last full month at the Royal Scottish Academy.
National Museum of Scotland · Free
Over 200 objects on conflict in prehistoric Scotland, from the Neolithic to Rome, including six Bronze Age shields and the richest Iron Age warrior burial yet found.
Fruitmarket · Closes 11 October
Eva Rothschild's bronze, plaster, steel and concrete sculptures take over all three galleries, built to be walked around and between. Free, and gone after 11 October.
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.
Talbot Rice Gallery · Free
First UK show by Fiona Lutjenhuis splits the Georgian Gallery into a descent into Hell below and a watery Atlantis above, world-building on sin, ecology and belief.
Talbot Rice Gallery · Free
The gallery's interdisciplinary student exhibition, showcasing emerging undergraduate and postgraduate creative practice from Edinburgh College of Art and beyond.
City Art Centre · Free
Around 85 photographic portraits of women in Scots law by Dutch artist Carla van de Puttelaar, shown alongside historic portraits of lawmen by Scougall, Ramsay and Raeburn.
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.
