Victoria Street
Stromness
KW16 3AA
The Pier Arts Centre will open three new exhibitions on 19 June, bringing together work in textiles, drawing and printmaking by artists with strong links to Orkney.
On display until 26 September, The Scale of Things by Erin McQuarrie is rooted in Orkney’s landscape and heritage. The exhibition takes its title from Margaret Tait’s poem The Scale of Things and looks at how people connect with the natural world. Using text and textiles, McQuarrie’s work moves between the very small and the very large to reflect the beauty and character of place. In 2025, the artist spent a month at Linkshouse in Birsay as part of the Royal Scottish Academy Residencies for Scotland programme.
Also opening on 19 June until 15 August is When you’re tired of the mountains and the rivers and the trees..., an exhibition of drawings by Orkney artist Marian Ashburn. Ashburn works mainly in sketchbooks and often draws outdoors, capturing landscapes around Stromness as well as moments gathered while travelling. The title comes from the first line of Allie Windwick’s song Owre the Ferry and the exhibition reflects the artist’s long-standing enjoyment of looking closely, drawing regularly, and noticing how places change over time.
A third exhibition, New Prints by Soulisquoy Printmakers, will also run from 19 June to 15 August. For their annual display of new work, the printmakers have explored the themes of mapping, journeying and different points of view. The result is a varied collection of limited-edition prints. The exhibition will also include the launch of a new limited-edition print by Megumi Barrington Uenoyama as part of an ongoing series of commissions that began in 2022/23 during Soulisquoy’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
Elsewhere in the gallery, Through Their Eyes –The Pier Arts Centre Collection and the unfolding Asprey gift is on display until 7 November. This richly layered exhibition presents a remarkable group of contemporary works, newly gifted to the Pier Arts Centre by publisher, arts patron, and collector Charles Asprey through the Cultural Gifts Scheme administered by Arts Council England.
All the exhibitions will be on display during the St Magnus International Festival (19-28 June 2026). The Pier Arts Centre is open Monday - Saturday between 10:30am and 5pm throughout the summer. Admission is free.
