Welcome to DES Talks. In this episode Susanna explores Hospitalfield, an extraordinary 19th century Scots Baronial cum Arts and Craft house with a glorious walled garden that is dedicated to contemporary art and ideas.

Located on Scotland's east coast a skip away from the North Sea and the town of Arbroath, Hospitalfield was built by Patrick and Elisabeth Allan Fraser as their home. Arbroath-born Patrick who studied art at Edinburgh of College of Art was determined that Hospitalfield become a home for artists, building light-filled studios in 1901.

Over a 100 years later, Hospitalfield today welcomes art practitioners from around the world and offers workshops and welcomes the general public. The celebrated architects, Caruso St John, have built a cafe, a fernery and restored the studio spaces. And a few years back the visionary plantsman and garden designer, Nigel Dunnett, devised a beauteous planting scheme for the walled garden.

Susanna speaks to Hospitafleld's director Lucy Byatt, architect Peter St John and artist, choreography and performer, Florence Peake. Florence recently staged Ode to the Dark, a collaboration with Scottish Dance Theatre at Hospitalfield. A processional performance that excavates the realms of loss, Florence talks about her work and the ongoing exhibition at Hospitalfield, Your Meaning Not Your Materiality.

Lucy also talks about the work of Nigel Dunnett who died earlier this year and the prestigious International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens which has just been awarded to Hospitalfield.

Hosptifalfield
Florence Peake
Caruso St John Architects
Nigel Dunnett
The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens
Watch Florence's 2025 peformance of To Love and To Cherish at Jupiter Artland.

Thanks so much for listening to our DES Talks conversation, we do hope you enjoyed it. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe and rate and rave - we really want to share these conversations far and wide! 

And don’t forget to explore our previous podcasts such as our visit to the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney, our conversation with Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade talking clay and the making of Earth Becoming for Earth Matters or Susanna's chat with celebrated film maker Mark Cousins about his film, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things celebrating the artist, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. 

Huge thanks to musician Malin Lewis for Cycle Lane which accompanies DES Talks and Ryan Scott Media for production. 

Image - Florence Peake, Your Meaning Not Your Materiality, Hospitalfield. Image Neil Hanna. 

Welcome to this conversation exploring Pier Arts Centre, an outstandingly beautiful art gallery on Orkney, an archipelago off the north of mainland Scotland.

We talk about its celebrated collection of British Modernism and a recent gift of over 60 contemporary arts works of huge international significance. We also remember the artist Christine Borland who sadly died last month. Her exhibition Divine Imperfect was held at the Pier in 2012.

Susanna speaks to Pier curator Andrew Parkinson about the life and times of the late Margaret Gardiner, whose gift of over 60 artworks in the 1970s was the impetus to the formation of the Pier which opened in the small town of Stromness in 1979. Her collection exemplifies British Modernism and includes works by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Margaret Mellis. And this year, the publisher and collector Charles Asprey, gifted over 50 works by contemporary artists from the UK and beyond to Pier. Artists include Wolfgang Tillmans, Kitty Kraus and Manfred Pernice and the exhibition, 'Through Their Eyes - The Pier Arts Centre Collection and the unfolding Asprey gift', which is currently on at Pier, offers moving juxtapositions of works by artists such as Pernice and Ben Nicholson; Kitty Kraus and Margaret Mellis and Michael Dean and Eduardo Paolozzi. She speaks to Charles about collecting and gifting. 

Susanna goes on to speak to the Glasgow-based artist, Erin McQuarrie whose exhibition The Scale of Things is inspired by the Orcadian, filmmaker and poet, Margaret Tait. The textile works, some suspended, others wall-based are made of wool and linen frequently dyed by plants foraged by Erin. Erin also talks about the importance of her residency last year at Linkshouse on Orkney, which is run by Pier.

Pier Arts Centre
Charles Asprey
Erin McQuarrie
Linkshouse residency programme
Christine Borland's obituary in The Guardian

To find out more about the work of Orkney-born filmmaker and poet, Margaret Tait (1918-1999) head to Lux and to view her work go to YouTube.

Thanks so much for listening to our DES Talks conversation. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe and rate and rave - we really want to share these conversations far and wide! 

And don’t forget to explore our previous podcasts such as Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade talking clay and the making of Earth Becoming for Earth Matters or Susanna's conversation with celebrated film maker Mark Cousins about his film, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things celebrating the artist, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. 

Huge thanks to musician Malin Lewis for Cycle Lane which accompanies DES Talks and Ryan Scott Media for production. 

Image Margaret Gardiner at Pier Arts Centre with Barbara Hepworth's Curve Form (Trevalgan) 1956, c 1980

Welcome to our conversation with two artists who work with fabric, thread, form and colour. The Edinburgh-based Louise Bennetts and Laura Lees both delight in textiles and stitching, frequently inspired by the architecture that surrounds them, weaving in memory of place and the urban landscape.

In their conversation with Susanna, they share stories from their early years - Louise studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Royal College of Art; Laura studied tapestry at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee - and how moving from Scotland to London and back to Edinburgh has inspired a delight in exploring an ever-changing urban landscape. Susanna talks to Louise in her exhibition, Urban Fabric at Leith's Custom Lane and explores Laura's show at Bard.

Laura's exhibition Wish You Were Here is at Bard, Edinburgh until 18th July.

Louise's site-specific commission, The Unconformities is on show in Earth Matters, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh until 1st November.

Thanks so much for listening to our conversation. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe and rate and rave -we really want to share these conversations far and wide! 

And don’t forget to explore our previous podcasts such as Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade talking clay and the making of Earth Becoming for Earth Matters or Susanna's conversation with celebrated film maker Mark Cousins about his film, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things celebrating the artist, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. 

And coming soon, Susanna heads to Orkney to visit the celebrated Pier Arts Centre, explores Hospitalfield in Arbroath and speaks to the artist, Florence Peake and hears from weavers and artists at Edinburgh's Dovecot Studio. 

Huge thanks to musician Malin Lewis for Cycle Lane which accompanies DES Talks and Ryan Scott Media for production. 

Image - Laura Lees, Tennent's Lager postcard

Welcome to a recording of a discussion held at the National Galleries of Scotland, celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of the Edinburgh-born geologist, writer and farmer, James Hutton (1726–1797), and the exhibition inspired by Hutton, Earth Matters at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

The panel discussion explores Hutton's influence on contemporary creative thinking and art. Glasgow-based designer and maker Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong who works with found rocks and soil and Dr Katie Strang, curator of rock and minerals at The Hunterian, Glasgow, discuss their ideas and explorations with Susanna Beaumont (Design Exhibition Scotland) curator of Earth Matters, an exhibition which forms part of a year long James Hutton Tercentenary 2026 programme of events.

You can watch the discussion via our YouTube platform. The live captions on screen are automatically generated by YouTube and are sometimes not accurate.

This panel discussion was held at Hawthorden Lecture Theatre, National Galleries of Scotland as part of the Learning Team programme of lunchtime lectures, so many thanks to NGS and the team for allowing us to share this discussion.

Earth Matters runs until 1st November at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, open daily 10.30-4.30pm, free.

Image
Under the City

Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong

2026
Photograph Ruth Clark 

Welcome to this conversation with Tania Kovats and Siobhan McLaughlin, two outstanding artists who have a deep curiosity in land and sea. We explore their ideas and influences and talk mapping, colour, geology, landscapes and the past and the present.

And in particular we chat about their work in two exhibitions currently on in Edinburgh - Tania is showing in Earth Matters, an exhibition inspired by the life and work of the Edinburgh born geologist and farmer who was born 300 years ago this year, which is at Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, while Siobhan is showing in Extraction, a group show at Jupiter Artland which explores energy systems and their impact on culture and landscape.

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Tania is based in Devon. Her practice explores through sculpture, drawing and writing how our the land and seas around us have been shaped and formed. Her permanent artwork River is at Jupiter Artland and in 2014 she exhibited Oceans at Edinburgh's Fruitmarket. Her drinking fountain WELL, commissioned by Design Exhibition Scotland, is installed at Old Admiralty Building, Whitehall and the Fruitmarket. She is the author of The Drawing Book, 2017 and Drawing Water, 2014. 

Tania is currently showing in the following exhibitions - 

Into the Time Horizon Nevada Museum of Art 

Komij Mour Ijin/Our Life is Here National Maritime Museum, Greenwich London

Cosmos The art of observing space RWA Bristol/Aberdeen Art Gallery

Drawing Room Biennale, London

Siobhan studied at Edinburgh College of Art graduating in 2019. She works with remnant textiles and gathered earth pigments,  practice connects experiences of the landscape layered with memories and connections to people, the body, and time. Exploring themes of place, care and sustainability through painting, printmaking and installation, I consider how past and current activities leave impressions on our ecologies.

Siobhan is currently showing in the following exhibitions - 
Ten Good Years, The Heong Gallery, Cambridge until 11th October 

Zum Paradies, Villa Schoeningen, Berlin, 31st May until 21st August 

Extraction is at Jupiter until 26 July.
Earth Matters is at Inverleith House Gallery until 1 November

Image Tania Kovats The Book of Earth, 2026 Watercolour, ink and acrylic on Soil Survey of Scotland maps
On show in Earth Matters.

Thanks so much for listening to our conversation. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe and rate and rave -we really want to share these conversations far and wide! 

And don’t forget to explore our previous podcasts such as Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade talking clay and the making of Earth Becoming for Earth Matters or my conversation with celebrated film maker Mark Cousins about his film, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things celebrating the artist, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. 

Huge thanks to musician Malin Lewis for Cycle Lane which accompanies DES Talks and Ryan Scott Media for production. 

Catch up with a panel discussion recorded at Edinburgh's Fruitmarket last month marking Earth Day. Chaired by Susanna 'glancing backwards into a time that far predates us' is a lively conversation celebrating two exhibitions: Ilana Halperin's What Is Us and What Is Earth (Fruitmarket) and Earth Matters (Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and the life and work of James Hutton, the Edinburgh-born geologist and farmer who was born 300 years ago this year. 

Artists Ilana Halperin and Louise Bennetts, writer and performer Karine Polwart, and soil scientist Colin Campbell (Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute) discuss Hutton’s legacy in the context of contemporary creative practice. Ilana's exhibition (closing 17th May) touches upon Hutton's radical rethinking about the creation of the Earth and Earth Matters brings together the work of over 30 artists to delve into the ground beneath our feet. Louise talks about her textile work which was inspired by drawings by Hutton's friend and contemporary John Clerk of Eldin. While Karine Polwart inspired by Hutton's visit to Siccar Point, a rocky promontory on the Berwickshire east coast, sings her beautiful ballad, Still As Your Sleeping. And Colin shares his deep knowledge of Hutton's life and the theory of unconformity which provided evidence that Earth was far older than previously imagined.

Ilana Halperin was born in New York and lives Glasgow. Her work explores the relationship between geology and daily life. She combines fieldwork in diverse locations – on volcanoes in Hawaii, caves in France, geothermal springs in Japan, and in museums, archives and laboratories, with an active studio-based practice.

Louise Bennetts is an Edinburgh-based fashion and textiles designer, researcher and maker. She works independently across varied projects, with a particular interest in alternative textile systems, applications, and sustainable material innovation.

Karine Polwart is a writer, musician, and storyteller whose work evokes a richness of place, hidden histories, scientific enquiry and folklore. Karine is currently Dr Gavin Wallace Fellow for 2025–26 via the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh and Creative Scotland. Her research and writing under the brief ‘Attached to Land’ is focused on the coastal edge lands and stone ridges of of the Forth Valley, East Lothian and Borders.

Colin Campbell is Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute, which leads research on land and sustainable management. His science focuses on soil ecology. The institute reflects the enduring spirit of Enlightenment science and an appreciation of Hutton’s

intellectual legacy: rigorous observation, critical reasoning, and a commitment to applying knowledge for the public good.

Susanna Beaumont is a curator and creative produced based in Edinburgh. Projects include the touring exhibition, Ash Rise for Scottish Furniture Makers Association; guest curator for Craft Scotland's presentation for Collect, London and Design for our Times at V&A Dundee. For the last year she has worked with Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Earth Matters. She launched DES Talks podcast in 2025. 

Image James Hutton, 1776 by Sir Henry Raeburn. National Galleries of Scotland. 

Thanks to Edinburgh Geological Society for their generous support and to Fruitmarket and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 

Welcome to DES Talks, our podcast exploring creativity across Scotland, presented by Susanna Beaumont. 

She looks forward to sharing with you inspiring conversations with some of the most adventurous, curious and brilliant designers, artists, makers and curators. We talk ideas and inspiration, challenges and influences, the contemporary and the historic. 

In this episode, we explore the life and work of the brilliant artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham with Rob Airey, director of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and Mark Cousins, the renowned Edinburgh-based Northern Irish filmmaker. We discuss her work and the making of Mark's extraordinary film, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, which celebrates her life and mind.

Willie, as she was known throughout her life, was born in St Andrews in 1912 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art and went on to live in Cornwall's St Ives within its celebrated community of artists and writers. Exploring landscape and pushing towards abstraction, it was a trip to Switzerland in 1949 to climb the Grindelwald glacier that promoted Willie to dive ever more deeply into texture, colour and form. She died in 2004.

Explore Willie's work on the Barns-Graham Trust website.
Watch A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things on BFI player. There is soon to be released a Blu-Ray / DVD version of the film.
Read Mark Cousins interviewed by the BFI.
Earth Matters at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh until 1 November
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham - Nature in Motion at Museum Belvédère, the Netherlands 20 June - 20 September 2026
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham at Tate St Ives 24 October 2026  - 11 April 2027

Thanks so much for listening to DES Talks. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe and rate and rave! We really want to share these conversations far and wide. 

And don’t forget to explore our previous 12 podcasts such as Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade talking clay and the making of Earth Becoming for Earth Matters, the exhibition I curated with Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh at Inverleith House or our conversation on the work of Donald Locke, the Guyanese artist who studied at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s whose solo show is currently on at Camden Arts Centre, London. 

Huge thanks to musician Malin Lewis for Cycle Lane which accompanies DES Talks and Ryan Scott Media for production. 

Welcome to DES Talks, Design Exhibition Scotland’s lively exploration of making and creating. We talk ideas and inspiration, challenges and influences and of course the joy of creativity with artists, makers, designers and curators from across Scotland. 

In this episode Susanna meets makers Viv Lee and Jonathan Wade in their workshop within Glasgow Ceramic Studio. We talk about their recent residency at the Hugo Burge Foundation in the Scottish Borders where they collected wild clay and explored a landscape once farmed by the 18th century revolutionary thinker, James Hutton and author of the Theory of the Earth. We talk about their early years - Viv grew up in Hong Kong and was always happiest outdoors. Later she studied law in London and it was not until she studied at Glasgow School of Art in her thirties, that she first encountered clay. Whereas Jonathan who grew up in rural England encountered clay at an early age, thanks to an art teacher at school and went on to study at the Royal College of Art.

Both Viv and Jonathan talk about their own practices - Studio Viv Lee & Ingot Objects - but how collaborating together can unleash new possibilities and an exciting sense of adventure. This is the only the second time they have collaborated on a project, the first being for Bard, a craft gallery in Leith, Edinburgh a few years ago.

And we chat about their new work Earth Becoming. A series of wild clay lidded boxes and their delight in working closely with clay they have collected with their own hands. 

Earth Becoming is soon to be seen at Earth Matters, an exhibition curated by Susanna and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh which celebrates Hutton in the tercentenary year of his birth. Earth Matters at Inverleith House runs from 20 March to 1 November.

https://www.studiovivlee.com/
https://www.ingot-objects.com/

Thank you so much listening to DES Talks. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe and rate and rave! We really want to spread DES Talks far and wide. And don’t forget to explore our previous podcasts such as our conversation about the work of Donald Locke, the Guyanese artist who studied at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s or our exploration of Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine which is currently on at V&A Dundee or hear more about the life and fabulous outfits of textile designer, Bernat Klein who lived in the Scottish Borders. 

Huge thanks to musician Malin Lewis for Cycle Lane which accompanies DES Talks and Ryan Scott Media for production. 

Welcome to DES Talks, lively conversations celebrating creativity from Design Exhibition Scotland.

In this episode Susanna explores the life and work of the outstanding artist Donald Locke who studied at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s. Born in Guyana in 1930, Locke's work in ceramic, on canvas, in sculpture and film meld together materials, ideas and politics. It's radical, powerful work. Locke died in 2010.

Susanna is joined by Brenda Locke, Locke's wife and manager of the Donald Locke Estate and curator Tiffany Boyle. Tiffany, co-founded of the curatorial agency Mother Tongue, curated Revisiting the Work of Black Artists in Scotland Through New Collecting at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow in 2022. The exhibition which included ceramic work by Locke, vitally raised awareness of his work. Locke's work has since been acquired by Glasgow Museums, National Museums of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh.

A brilliant retrospective exhibition of Locke's work, Resistance Forms, is currently on at  Camden Arts Centre, London until 30 August 2026. It was previously at Spike Island, Bristol and Ikon, Birmingham.

Further reading / viewing

Curator's talk - Robert Leckie on Resistance Forms
Panel discussion - Hew Locke, Giulia Smith & Robert Leckie on Resistance Forms 

Guardian review of Resistance Forms

Mother Tongue on GoMA: Revisiting Black Artists in Scotland Through New Collecting 

Tiffany Boyle's article in Map magazine

Donald Locke Foundation

Thank you for listening to DES Talks. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe, rave and rate. We are new to this game and keen to reach as many listeners as possible, far and wide. And do explore our previous podcasts - we explore V&A Dundee's exhibition Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine with V&A curator Rachel Dedman and artists Leena Nammari and Aya Haidar; we talk Harvest, Craft Scotland's recent showcase of contemporary craft with curator Stacey Hunter and potter, Samuel Sparrow and weaver, Julia Rebaudo. Or tune into Frances Priest or Cara Guthrie talking about clay and Gráinne Rice discussing the pure beauty of the clothes designed by the visionary textile artist, Bernat Klein. 

Design Exhibition Scotland was founded by Susanna Beaumont in 2018 to celebrate and champion making and creating through exhibitions, conversations, commissions and now podcasts.

Production
Ryan Scott Film

Music
Malin Lewis 

Welcome to DES Talks! In this episode Susanna is out and about in Edinburgh's port Leith, which lies to the north of the city. It is where the Water of Leith from its source 20 miles south in the Pentland Hills, flows into the Firth of Forth and the onwards into the North Sea. It was once a place of ship building, trade, sea transport and travel - a place of glass works and bottling, soap factories and barrel makers and warehouses.

Today many of these former spaces have been transformed into artist studios and workshops. There’s Coburg House Studios, Cyan Clay Works, SilverHub Studios, Mote exhibition space and Leith School of Art. 

Our focus today is on Custom Lane, located beside the Water of Leith and behind an imposing early 19th century building, Custom House. We explore Custom Lane, its gallery space and the exhibition Feminine Literacy; we talk craft, materials and making with Hugo Macdonald, founder of Bard, an intimate haven for the hand-made and we chat to Gunnar Groves Raines, architect and founder of GRAS Studios, who has turned Custom Lane in a thriving space that celebrates art, craft and making.  And we hear more on Gunnar's new venture, Brown’s of Leith. Until recently, home to the engineering company, George Brown and Sons, it is now a place to meet, eat and drink with visionary plans to transform the upper spaces in to showcase for craft and design. 

We hope you enjoy DES Talks. 

Bard is at 1 Customs Wharf Leith Edinburgh EH6 6AL and is open Friday - Sunday 11am - 5pm or by appointment.
Brown's of Leith is at 4 - 6 Shore Leith EH6 6QS and is open Thursday - Sunday 8am - 8pm.
Feminine Literacy was curated and presented by Doyenne Studio.

Thank you for listening to DES Talks. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe, rave and rate. We are new to this game and keen to reach as many listeners as possible, far and wide. And do explore our previous podcasts - we explore V&A Dundee's exhibition Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine with V&A curator Rachel Dedman and artists Leena Nammari and Aya Haidar; we talk Harvest, Craft Scotland's recent showcase of contemporary craft with curator Stacey Hunter and potter, Samuel Sparrow and weaver, Julia Rebaudo. Or tune into Frances Priest or Cara Guthrie talking about clay and Gráinne Rice discussing the pure beauty of the clothes designed by the visionary textile artist, Bernat Klein. 

Design Exhibition Scotland was founded by Susanna Beaumont in 2018 to celebrate and champion making and creating through exhibitions, conversations, commissions and now podcasts.

Production
Ryan Scott Film

Music
Malin Lewis