Scotland 2026 - who gets to belong?

Information

The world-famous portrait artist Gerard M Burns has created a series of portraits of women from across the world who have chosen to make Glasgow their home. It raises the issue of ‘belonging’ not just to a city but to a country where the voices of often marginalised communities are not always heard by decision-makers whose policies impact everyone’s daily lives. With growing polarisation, mistrust, and a sense of being “left behind” for many communities, how can Scotland bring diverse voices together, move from division to empathy, and ensure community voices are at the heart of decision-making?

Chair: Katie Hagmann MSP, Convener, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee

Panellists:

Dr Hayley Bennett is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the design and delivery of social security, labour market programmes, and anti-poverty initiatives for the working-age population in the UK.

Gerard M Burns is an artist and studied drawing and painting at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1983. Burns has had a successful teaching career, leaving his post as Principle of Art at Glasgow’s St Aloysius College to focus full time on painting. He has completed commissions for a number of private and commercial collections, notably his painting The Rowan which hangs in the Scottish Parliament.

Professor Dr Nasar Meer FRSE is Professor of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow and Academic Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation. He has been a Commissioner on the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Post-COVID-19 Futures Inquiry, a Member of the Scottish Government COVID-19 and Ethnicity Expert Reference Group. He has previously held a Minda de Gunzburg Fellowship at Harvard University, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the UK Academy of Social Sciences, and a past recipient of the RSE Thomas Reid Medal.

Yuliia Hryshchenko is the founder of SCIO Music & Art Centre Nightingale. After fleeing Ukraine with her three children in 2022, she rebuilt her life in Scotland and turned her family's journey into a mission to make arts accessible to every child. She believes creativity can heal, build confidence and strengthen communities.