National Galleries of Scotland gets £56m for new Edinburgh gallery The Art Works

The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) has secured £56 million from the Scottish government to build The Art Works, a free-to-visit gallery in Granton, north Edinburgh. Construction begins summer 2026. The gallery will house over 130,000 artworks, with open storage allowing visitors to pull out racks and use viewing rooms—a model director-general Anne Lyden compares to the V&A East Storehouse. The project is central to NGS's 2026-30 strategic plan to improve access; currently only 3% of the collection is on display. Lyden stated the remaining 97% is in expensive, overcrowded storage that puts art at risk. The total cost is estimated at £100 million, with NGS seeking further funds from the UK government and philanthropists. The announcement follows a BiGGAR Economics report showing NGS contributed £253 million to Scotland's economy in 2024/25. The funding comes amid financial challenges for Scottish arts—V&A Dundee halved exhibitions in 2024—but also positive signs: Creative Scotland awarded £200m to 251 organisations in 2025, and the Scottish government increased arts investment to £266.3m in January 2026. After The Art Works completes, NGS plans a major refurbishment of its National Gallery on the Mound, including modernised exhibition spaces and infrastructure upgrades to the 1859 William Playfair building.