Acclaimed Isaac Julien artwork ‘Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass’ to visit Perth Museum

Sunday 23rd August 2026

J.P. Ball Studio, 1867 Douglass (Lessons of The Hour), 2019 © Isaac Julien

Issac Julien’s iconic work celebrating Frederick Douglass comes to Scotland in a partnership with Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland through ARTIST ROOMS

Perth Museum is marking UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on 23 August 2026 with the announcement of its next exhibition Lessons of the Hour opening on 9 October 2026, which will explore human rights campaigner and abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s time in Scotland and Perthshire’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade.

Perth Museum will be the first and only Scottish venue on this new ARTIST ROOMS tour presenting Isaac Julien’s powerful film Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass (2019). ARTIST ROOMS is Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland’s touring collection of modern and contemporary art, and this will be the first opportunity for audiences around the UK to see Julien’s work since it was acquired for the national collection.

North Star (Lessons of The Hour), 2019 © Isaac Julien

Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass (2019) by Turner Prize-nominated British artist Isaac Julien, CBE, RA, is a poetic meditation on the life and times of Frederick Douglass, the visionary African American orator, philosopher, intellectual, and self-liberated freedom-fighter, who was born into slavery in Maryland, USA.

During his 1846 campaign against US chattel slavery and all the inequalities and injustices across the UK and Ireland, Douglass delivered four speeches in Perth in the former City Hall building, on the very site where Perth Museum is now located. Isaac Julien’s work, and in turn this exhibition, takes its title from Frederick Douglass’s final delivered speech in 1894.

The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass, who played a critical role in anti-slavery and human rights movements in Scotland and around the world. Inspired by some of his most influential speeches and enriched by stories from his personal and public life, the exhibition also investigates Perthshire’s significant links to the slave trade and how they still shape the region today.

The ARTIST ROOMS tour of Lessons of the Hour will continue next year to other cities where Frederick Douglass spoke multiple times during his nineteen-month campaign around the UK and Ireland. Exhibitions at Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast and Arnolfini in Bristol will present Isaac Julien’s work and invite audiences to reflect on Frederick Douglass’s impact. Through these collaborative partnerships, ARTIST ROOMS supports wider access and engagement with works of art in our national collections and creative participation in towns and cities across the UK.

The Lady of the Lake (Lessons of The Hour), 2019 © Isaac Julien

“Like much of Scotland, Perth and Kinross had close links with the horrors of transatlantic slavery and its impacts are still with us today. I cannot think of a more fitting location than Perth Museum for the first and only Scottish venue to host Lessons of the Hour as part of the inaugural ARTIST ROOMS UK tour. Our museum stands on the very spot where Frederick Douglass himself would have spoken to packed-out crowds as part of his powerful anti-slavery campaigning across Scotland. Julien’s powerful immersive artwork re-energises Douglass’s life and legacy for a new generation, and we are proud to play our part in re-introducing this story to the people of Perth and Scotland.”

Ashleigh Hibbins, Head of Audiences and Learning at Culture Perth & Kinross

Through the ARTIST ROOMS programme, Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland are committed to bringing the greatest artworks from the national collection directly to people's local towns and cities. Isaac Julien's Lessons of the Hour is a perfect example of the calibre and dynamism of what ARTIST ROOMS can offer – a profoundly moving meditation on a historical figure of both local and global significance, hosted by a much loved and highly regarded museum.”

Gregor Muir, Director of Collection at Tate

Rapture, 1846 (Lessons of The Hour), 2019 © Isaac Julien

“It feels only right that this tour will begin in Scotland and importantly Perth, where Frederick Douglass made a lasting impact through his dedication to human rights and anti-slavery. This is a fantastic opportunity for visitors to Perth Museum to re-discover Douglass’s fascinating story through the powerful and poignant artwork of Isaac Julien. We look forward to sharing even more of the remarkable ARTIST ROOMS collection with audiences across Scotland when our new building, The Art Works, is completed. As well as being a free-to-visit experience in Edinburgh, The Art Works will provide a new home for more than 130,000 artworks, including a significant proportion of the ARTIST ROOMS collection. We are excited by the opportunity to bring more of these works, and the stories they tell, to communities across Scotland and beyond.”

Anne Lyden, Director General of National Galleries of Scotland

“I wished to use the distinctive language of filmmaking and photography to create artworks that would hopefully inspire others, to delve into the poetic words of Frederick Douglass and the aesthetics of his writings, which gives meaning to our lives during these challenging times, and to engage with things that still require our commitment and struggle. I believe, as Douglass wrote, that aesthetics and politics have a fundamental role to play in the reconstitution of our humanity.”

Issac Julien

To date, Perth Museum has welcomed more than 500,000 visitors and is famously home to The Stone of Destiny, which returned home to Perthshire after 700 years in 2024. The iconic object, an ancient symbol of Scottish monarchy and kingdom, and an object of utmost importance to both Scotland and the UK.

The museum’s success has been reflected in a series of awards and accolades, including being the only Scottish finalist for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025.

It has also secured industry recognition, winning Small Regeneration Project of the Year at the Scottish Property Awards 2025, Best Travel PR Campaign at the Roxhill Media Awards, Championing Social Justice Award 2024 from the Museums Association, and Best Civic Brand Identity at the Scottish Design Awards 2024.

Perth Museum is managed by charitable trust Culture Perth and Kinross, which is also celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. The Museum is open 7 days a week, and the exhibition Lessons of the Hour opens on 9 October 2026 and runs until 11 April 2027. Admission is free for all; however, donations are welcome.

lessons of the hour