Art lovers now have another venue to cater to their cultural appetite as Edinburgh's City Art Centre reopened its doors at the weekend.

Following a fifteen month refurbishment, the ever popular Market Street gallery will resume its prominent place in Edinburgh's visual art scene just in time for its summer shows to feature in this year's Edinburgh Art Festival.

The City Art Centre reopened to the public on Saturday 31 July with two major exhibitions featuring works by two quite different, world-renowned American photographers, Edward Weston and William Wegman.

Edward Weston (1886-1958) is one of the masters of 20th century photography and one of the most innovative and influential American photographers of all time.

William Wegman (b. 1943) is best known for his series of photographic compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners, in various costumes and poses.

The gallery also displays an exhibition of works from the City's own nationally recognised collection of Scottish art. In Our Own Image features work on the broad theme of the human form, including both conventional portraiture and more challenging portrayals of the clothed and naked human body, both historic and contemporary.

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As part of its £1.2m refurbishment, visitor facilities have been improved and brought together on the ground floor. This includes the City Art Centre's very popular shop, which has been relocated from the first to the ground floor, making it more visible and accessible.

The reception area has also been transformed, with visitor facilities further enhanced by the inclusion of a new cloakroom and improved toilets. The refurbishment's first phase saw the entire building's air conditioning and ventilation upgraded, improving atmospheric conditions for gallery goers and for the artworks themselves.

Councillor Deidre Brock, the City of Edinburgh Council's Culture and Leisure Convenor, said: "It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome people back to Edinburgh's own City Art Centre, which is looking superb after its refurbishment. As a major exhibition venue and home to the city's nationally important art collection, we were determined to ensure the gallery was in top condition ready for a packed calendar of fabulous exhibitions from now on, and I'm confident visitors will agree that we've done just that.

"Art lovers, photography fans and all those too who only rarely if ever visit art galleries are in for a real treat with the exhibitions we're putting on this summer. William Wegman and Edward Weston are both legendary names in the photography world and I'm sure their shows will generate extraordinary interest, while In Our Own Image will present engaging works from our own nationally recognised collection of Scottish art."

The City Art Centre's reopening comes just months after the gallery celebrated the receipt of a very welcome grant for £80,628 from Museums Galleries Scotland. This funding will allow the Council to devote a whole floor of the City Art Centre to the permanent display of artworks from its nationally-recognised collection.

(GK)