Hansard

I forgive you, Presiding Officer.

I am pleased to be part of the National Galleries of Scotland Bill Committee with Anne McTaggart and Fiona McLeod. My interest was aroused because of the words “common good land” and “National Galleries of Scotland”.

I hear all the things that have been said about the wonderful content of our national gallery, but there has been criticism for a long number of years from artists and others who have always felt that it has been a shame on us that people go in through the front door of a national gallery in the capital city of a country and the national art of that country is not immediately obvious to them. As others have highlighted, people have to go down two flights of stairs into a basement to see these wonderful works of art.

The development will make an enormous difference, and so it should. It will be a coming of age for our collection of Scottish art, which should—and, I hope, will—be seen. The same works will be there, although with the new entrance we might not see works displayed in the same rooms. I hope that the gallery will start to place far more emphasis on where people can find works by the Scottish painters. The fact that 20 per cent of visitors to the national gallery are not making their way to the gallery of Scottish works is not something to be proud of.

The proposals in the bill have many bonuses. As has been mentioned, a small part of Princes Street gardens will become part of the national gallery. That seems to me to be a move from common good to common good. Other benefits include improvements to the Playfair steps, which are in need of renovation for sure; improved disabled access; and a realignment of some of the grass. With those things, the area around that part of the gallery will look spectacular.

In the area that we are discussing, there is a memorial to the extraordinary role that Scots played in the Spanish civil war. Just as the Scottish art collection has been tucked away in the basement of our national gallery for too long, the memorial to the Spanish civil war and those who went from Scotland to fight in it, too, has been tucked away. It is not a huge memorial, but it will be given more prominence and shown to better effect in the new layout of the grounds.

I do not think that anyone has objected to this proposed move from common good to common good, with public land becoming part of the national gallery. I look forward to seeing the work when it is complete, and to seeing the gallery of work by Scotland’s artists, the memorial to those who went to the Spanish civil war and indeed the Playfair steps renovated and renewed. The bill is in Scotland’s interests.