On May 12 of 2018 Ingleby will celebrate its 20th birthday by opening a new gallery in a historic building in central Edinburgh.
The Glasite Meeting House is an austere but beautiful building dating from 1834, originally built as the Edinburgh headquarters of the Glasites, a breakaway group of Church of Scotland worshippers. The Glasite Meeting House has now been restored and refurbished to create a unique exhibition space; historical in character but wholly contemporary in vision.
The Glasite Meeting House is a category A listed former place of worship of the small Scottish religious sect known as the Glasites, named after the Rev. John Glas who broke away from the Church of Scotland in 1732. The principle tenet of their belief was that the Word of the Lord was as written in the scriptures, therefore the building was never consecrated as there is no mention of such in the bible. Similarly, weddings, funerals and baptisms had no place, psalms were sung, but never hymns, and there was no superfluous decoration or art of any kind.
The Edinburgh Meeting House was designed by Alexander Black in 1834, with building. Begun in the following year, becoming the largest and most elaborate of the thirty or so Meeting Houses in Scotland. The Glasite Church was known colloquially as the Kale Kirk, in recognition of the communal meal of kale soup that would be served during their all-day services.
The last service took place in November 1989 and since then the building has been in the care of the Cockburn Conservation Trust and latterly the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust. Ingleby gallery, whilst recognising that John Glad himself might not fully approve, is very glad to bring this extraordinary building back into public use.
The inaugural exhibition will present a series of Exposed Paintings by Callum Innes and will run from 12 May to 14 July.