EDINBURGH.- The National Galleries of Scotland will this week launch a new initiative, which will give members of the public the chance to show their own favourite images alongside the national collection. From this week, the public can contribute their own images to Portrait of the Nation, as part of the fund-raising campaign for the ambitious £17.6m project to transform and redefine the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Put Yourself in the Picture will allow people to upload their favourite photograph and to add a personal caption, using a dedicated feature on the National Galleries’ website at www.nationalgalleries.org/yourpicture.

Aiming to bring together as many of the faces of Scotland as possible (along with pictures of our supporters from across the globe), Put Yourself in the Picture will have a prominent place in the refurbished Portrait Gallery, in recognition of the people who have helped to complete the building’s dramatic refurbishment. The uploaded images will feature in a continuous display, and each photo will be given a unique code, allowing visitors to access to their own contribution both in the gallery and online. Donors will be able to use the caption facility to record the particular significance of the image they have chosen to add, either in celebration of a significant occasion or person, to say thank you to someone special, or perhaps to remember someone who has touched their life. Their gift of an image will then help to create a more inclusive and rounded picture of Scotland.

To mark the launch of Put Yourself in the Picture on nationalgalleries.org, a new display opens on 2nd October at the National Gallery Complex in Edinburgh charting the progress of Portrait of the Nation, illustrating some of the ways in which the Portrait Gallery is being transformed. It will also offer a taster of the exhibitions that visitors can expect to see when the new-look Gallery is revealed in autumn 2011. These will place a much greater emphasis on the Gallery’s world-renowned collection, exploring different strands of Scottish history and culture to create a cohesive and celebratory portrait of Scotland.

The display will also underline the importance of photography, which will be integrated into displays throughout the new Portrait Gallery, and which also have its own major gallery space. In addition, there will be a preview of Faces and Places, a new digital suite that will allow visitors to experience the rich voice of Scotland’s writers and musicians by listening to poetry readings, music and songs relating to the works of art on display.