The Smith hosts The Guardian’s Great British Art Quiz
While museums have been closed due to the coronavirus, the Guardian has set up a weekly art quiz so people can explore and engage with art collections across the UK from the comfort of their own home. This week, the quiz is all about artwork in our very own collection.
Dutch Art Exhibition on ArtUK
The closure of museums has prompted ArtUK to create a new tool for curating virtual exhibitions using artwork from collections across the UK. Since the Stirling Smith’s exhibiting exhibition programme for 2020 has been delayed, we thought we would test this new ‘Curations’ tool out with an exhibition looking at
Introducing: Journeys in Art
The Stirling Smith is launching a weekly art history video series beginning on 17 June. While the museum is closed we still feel it is important to produce engaging content for the community. We hope that you will enjoy this introduction to art history series. What was rebellious about the
Online Mindful Art Sessions Offer Respite During Coronavirus Lockdown
Together with a local mindfulness business, Tranceform Therapies, the Stirling Smith has been hosting free online mindfulness sessions on our Facebook page. The sessions, which began on 13 May, take place every second Wednesday via Facebook Live and look at a different painting each time. The first session focused on A
Stirling Smith Paintings in Animal Crossing New Horizons
On Monday, 18 May we celebrated International Museum Day with museums and galleries across the world…and now in the digital sphere. Nintendo’s latest release, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken the world by storm and it too, is celebrating International Museum Day. For those who don’t know, the game
The Stirling Wolf
Have you ever wandered around Stirling and noticed wolves decorating many parts of the city? The reason for this is that the wolf is a symbol of Stirling and has been since the early medieval period. Long ago, in the 9th century, the small town of Stirling found itself on
Black Beast Wanderer
In keeping with the weather brought by the #beastfromtheeast, the featured image is of the only Scottish beast which can truly withstand freezing temperatures. ‘Black Beast Wanderer’ is the title of Joseph Denovan Adam’s study of a solitary highland cow, caught up in a snow storm. Adam (1842 – 1896)
David Cox at the Smith
Until this Sunday only, there is a small exhibition of 14 works by the eminent English watercolourist, David Cox (1783 – 1859). The works are from the Stirling Smith’s own collection, and are part of the bequest of the founder, Thomas Stuart Smith. The exhibition is curated by intern Annika
Gil Blas
Featured today is one of T. S Smith’s lesser known paintings. It is an illustration for an episode in the novel ‘Gil Blas’ written by Alain-Rene Lesage in 1735. Few today know anything of this novel, but it was read, appreciated and referenced by many other writers including Jonathan Swift,
The Star Spangled Barrel
People sometimes question the ‘relevance’ of museum collections. Right now, the Stirling Smith’s collection is the inspiration for an international anti-gun campaign in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, 1 October. Black American artist and political activist Ray Noland, who helped Obama’s election campaign in 2008