VAS Open Exhibition -
“The Thread That Pulls”

5th December 2025 - 2nd January 2026

National Galleries Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh

*The Thread That Pulls –  “Happiness is temporary but interest is continuous.” – Georgia O’Keeffe*

*Certain things tug at us over time. The thread is not a fixed object but a force: a line of curiosity, connection, or compulsion that loops through days, years, and even generations. It draws us back, quietly insistent, shaping the way we see and make.*

*Bringing together artists and makers across disciplines, The Thread That Pulls explores the enduring nature of attention. Works in the exhibition might trace a long-held preoccupation with a place, material, or idea; reveal the repeated gesture of a hand in craft; or unravel a personal or collective narrative that refuses to be forgotten.*

*The exhibition considers the thread both literally and metaphorically: as fibre and stitch; as the drawn line; as the invisible tether between people, objects, and memory. It asks: what makes us return to certain subjects again and again? How does sustained interest transform into form, texture, and meaning?*

*In a world of short attention spans and fleeting trends, The Thread That Pulls celebrates slow, sustained looking, the kind of engagement that resists completion and instead deepens with time.*

Entry to the exhibition is always free.

 

Exhibitions/Events

Common Ground;
The Living Landscape

31st January 2026 - 4th May 2026

Kirkcudbright Galleries, Dumfries and Galloway

2026 Annual Members Exhibition

28th March 2026 - 30th May 2026

Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr

Natural Collection Exhibition, with Scottish Ornithologists Club

29th April 2026 - 7th June 2026

Scottish Ornithologist Club, Aberlady

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