A New Gallery Celebrates Scottish Up to date Craft

Do photographs of tartan and tam-o-shanters come to thoughts once you consider Scottish craft? Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens are on a mission to broaden the world’s impression of Scotland and its capabilities. The 2 have simply opened Bard, an Edinburgh gallery within the guise of a collector’s grand quarters and it’s dedicated to showcasing the nation’s finest modern craft and design.

Macdonald and Stevens, a husband and husband crew, got here to this mission with impeccable credentials. A author and curator, Macdonald was on the mastheads at Wallpaper and Monocle earlier than serving as model director for Studioilse; he grew up on  the Isle of Skye and notes that the Macdonalds are Scotland’s oldest clan. Stevens is an architect who spent the primary decade of his profession renovating historic constructions at London salvage specialists Retrouvius. He has designed homes for Helena Bonham Carter and Eddie Redmayne and a retailer for Bella Freud.

To curate Bard, they spent a whirlwind two months visiting workshops, studios, and factories. They sized up willow vegetable baskets, woven leather-based pots, and 3D-printed totems as they chatted with makers about what it means to be Scottish right this moment. “Bard is a cultural mission, not only a business one,” notes Stevens. “We wished to seek out out what’s being created in Scotland, the place, by whom, and the way. We additionally wished to seek out out why.”

The 2 got here away with the work of 35 artists, designers, and producers of family items, a excessive/low vary of wares and kinds, from doormats of recycled rope to summary glass and wire sculptures. The driving thought behind Bard, Macdonald says, is to “honor Scottishness with all its pure glamour and tough edges.” Come see.

Images by Edvinas Bruzas, until famous, all courtesy of Bard.

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