Talbot Rice Gallery welcomes new Director

One of Scotland’s leading public galleries of contemporary visual art has appointed a highly experienced curator of international standing as its new director.

The new Director of the University’s Talbot Rice Gallery will be Tessa Giblin. She joins from Project Arts Centre in Dublin where she is Curator of Visual Arts.

Significant contemporary art

Ms Giblin will take over from the Gallery’s current Director, Pat Fisher, in early November 2016.

During her 11 years leading the Gallery, Mrs Fisher has programmed celebrated shows by the likes of Nam June Paik, Alice Neel, Luc Tuymans, Joseph Kosuth and Rosemarie Trockel.

I am absolutely delighted to have been appointed to lead the Talbot Rice Gallery and to begin working with so many wonderful colleagues from Edinburgh College of Art and the wider University. This rich academic and artistic environment will define the character of our exhibitions program, continuing Talbot Rice Gallery's long history of working with contemporary art and collections.

New Zealand to Edinburgh

Born and raised in New Zealand, Ms Giblin has been with Project Arts Centre for a decade.

She is Commissioner of the Pavilion of Ireland at the Venice Biennale, where she and Project Arts Centre will continue to work together to present Jesse Jones in 2017.

Talbot Rice will also take part in the Biennale next year to deliver Scotland + Venice 2017 in a dynamic partnership with Alchemy Film and Arts, Creative Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland, to present the work of Edinburgh College of Art graduate Rachel Maclean.

Talbot Rice Gallery

Based within Old College, Talbot Rice is the University’s public art gallery committed to showcasing significant contemporary art from around the world, alongside the University’s celebrated historic art collections.

Since opening to the public in 1975, the Gallery has built a strong reputation for bringing the work of important national and international artists to Scotland, many for the first time. It also makes the talent, knowledge and research that exists within the University accessible to a wide audience.  

We are very pleased to welcome Tessa as the new Director of the Talbot Rice Gallery. She has an impressive international reputation as a curator bringing Art, Science and the Humanities together. She is a very inspiring individual who will take the University’s Gallery in interesting and timely directions, building on the excellent work of Pat Fisher and her team.