Celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2014, the Embassy is the most long-running and highly regarded of Edinburgh’s grassroots, artist-run gallery spaces. Starting out in a storefront space on a Southside back street, it has moved more than once in that time and now occupies a white space in a nondescript basement room a stone’s throw from the city centre and the top of Leith Walk. Usually exhibiting group shows, entry is open to all members of the gallery, with particular historical links being held between the Embassy and the student body of Edinburgh College of Art.
Through its life the Embassy has been run by a committee of between five and seven artists, most of whom generally serve for up to but no more than two years. The inaugural committee included then Edinburgh-based artists Tommy Grace and Dave Maclean, now one half of the Mercury Prize-nominated band Django Django, while well-known local artists Craig Coulthard and Francesca Nobilucci have also served. Expect to see a range of raw and contemporary works with a similar spirit to the best of an Art College degree show.