On May 12 of 2018 Ingleby celebrated its 20th birthday by opening a new gallery in a historic building in central Edinburgh.

The Glasite Meeting House is an austere but beautiful building dating from 1834, originally built as the Edinburgh headquarters of the Glasites, a breakaway group of Church of Scotland worshippers. The Glasite Meeting House has now been restored and refurbished to create a unique exhibition space; historical in character but wholly contemporary in vision.The Glasite Meeting House is a category A listed former place of worship of the small Scottish religious sect known as the Glasites, named after the Rev. John Glas who broke away from the Church of Scotland in 1732.

The Edinburgh Meeting House was designed by Alexander Black in 1834, with building. Begun in the following year, becoming the largest and most elaborate of the thirty or so Meeting Houses in Scotland. The Glasite Church was known colloquially as the Kale Kirk, in recognition of the communal meal of kale soup that would be served during their all-day services.

The last service took place in November 1989 and since then the building has been in the care of the Cockburn Conservation Trust and latterly the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust. Ingleby gallery, whilst recognising that John Glad himself might not fully approve, is very glad to bring this extraordinary building back into public use.

Light is at the very heart of the new gallery. In the centre of the main space, which was built in 1835 as the Meeting Hall of a small Scottish religious sect called the Glasites, there is an octagonal cupola with etched and painted panels of glass that creates a projection, throwing a remarkable trace of gently coloured light across the walls.

A second exhibition TWENTY is hung in the large 'Feasting Room' of the Glasite Meeting House and throughout the rest of the building, celebrating twenty years of Ingleby Gallery, and presenting works by many of the key artists associated with the gallery's history; Roger Ackling, David Austen, Charles Avery, David Batchelor, Ben Cauchi, Susan Collis, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Andrew Cranston, Susan Derges, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Richard Forster, Kevin Harman, Howard Hodgkin, James Hugonin, Ellsworth Kelly, Peter Liversidge, Jonny Lyons, Garry Fabian Miller, Andrew Miller, Harland Miller, Craig Murray-Orr, Hylton Nel, Jonathan Owen, Katie Paterson, Winston Roeth, Iran do Espérito Santo, Sean Scully, Frank Walter, Alison Watt and Francesca Woodman.

Also on view will be newly commissioned furniture by Alastair Letch and ceramics made specifically for the Glasite Meeting House by Olivia Fiddes.

Press release courtesy Ingleby Gallery.