Giant Dolly heralds new National Museum of Scotland galleries

THEY are some of the most familiar sights across the Capital '“ as you've never seen them before.

The striking images for the Make Big Discoveries campaign include a giant Dolly the Sheep grazing in Princes Street Gardens. Picture: supplied

But don’t worry, Princes Street Gardens hasn’t been taken over by a giant Dolly the Sheep . . .

Instead, these images have been created to mark the final countdown towards the opening of ten new galleries at the National Museum of Scotland.

Featuring thousands of exhibits in the fields of science, technology, design, decorative art and fashion, the spaces are due to open on Friday, July 8.

An outsized carbon fibre racing bicycle perched outside the Bow Bar. Picture: supplied

The striking new images form the museum’s “Make Big Discoveries” campaign and will be used in advertising around the city over the new few weeks.

As well as a giant Dolly the Sheep grazing in Princes Street Gardens and Julian Hakes-designed shoes made on a 3D printer, the campaign features a priceless 18th-century porcelain lion sitting sphinx-like on Salisbury Crags and an outsized carbon fibre racing bicycle perched outside the Bow Bar.

Previously closed-off and little-used spaces are being transformed to make way for the £14.1 million new galleries, which staff have been fitting out since last October.

Around 40 per cent more floor space has been created for collections which have been largely hidden away from public view before now, as well as a host of new exhibits.

The striking images for the Make Big Discoveries campaign include a priceless 18th century porcelain lion sitting sphinx-like on Salisbury Crags. Picture: supplied

Highlights of the new galleries include Wedgwood plates designed by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, the Leith-born artist; an early camera by William Henry Fox Talbot, the “father of photography”; a prosthetic limb designed by the firm Touch Bionics; and the Nobel Prize medal awarded to Professor James Black, who discovered beta-blockers and the first anti-ulcer drugs.

Outfits created by fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Jean Muir and Zandra Rhodes will be on display, along with work created by celebrated Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Edinburgh painter Anna Phoebe Traquair.

Helen Ireland, head of marketing and communications at National Museums Scotland, said: “The new galleries cover a real variety of subject areas from fine art and cutting edge fashion to transport, engineering and groundbreaking medical science, from the Victorian era to the present day.

“There will be discoveries to make for people of all ages, whether they’re tourists coming to the museum for the first time or local people who’ve been here many times before.

“That’s why we’ve chosen to put these objects, striking enough in themselves, into these fresh and eye-catching perspectives for these designs.”

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