Art in Dundee
Dundee, given its size as a relatively small city, has a very active art community. Since the establishment of Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) in 1999 – which houses an acclaimed gallery, cinemas and studio space – the city has gone from strength to strength. Recent shows have included Martin Boyce’s ‘No Reflections’, which arrived home after a successful run at the Venice Biennale.
Abertay’s own Hannah Maclure Centre, situated on the top floor of the University’s Student Centre, has its own extensive cultural programme, with regularly changing exhibitions and schemes like Handmade Heaven – bringing artists and crafts together to sell unique items to the public at reasonable prices.
The Hannah Maclure Centre also supports local artists such as the Yuck ‘n’ Yum collective and Yann Seznec, who brought his recent new media residency to a close with an exhibition of his quite incredible Gelkies.
These creatures – built from basic electronic circuitry housed in plain glass jars – buzz, chitter and chat at each other. Each Gelkie has different characteristics, with their behaviour changing in response to their environment, and the other Gelkies around them.
Dundee museums
As well as a healthy cultural scene – which boasts the award-winning Dundee Rep Theatre, the GENERATORprojects gallery and the Dundee Art Society – the city has a range of historically significant museums, covering everything from textiles to Antarctic exploration.
Verdant Works is a world-renowned living museum – praised by Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman in the New York Times, no less – which charts the chequered history of Dundee’s jute industry. This forged much of the city’s industrial growth and made jute ‘barons’ fiercely wealthy, while their staff often lived and worked in squalor.
Down at the water’s edge, Discovery Point hosts one of Dundee’s most treasured landmarks – RRS Discovery, the boat Captain Scott first sailed to the Antarctic in. Recently waterproofed again, this historic boat can be toured and even hired out for meals and weddings!
In the city’s centre, the McManus Galleries is due for its big reopening at the end of February. As well as holding collections of much of the art bought by the city’s wealthy jute factory owners, in August the gallery will host the £50 million Titian painting Diana and Actaeon that caused such controversy when it was bought for the public last year.
V&A at Dundee
But, the jewel in the crown of the new Waterfront development will undoubtedly be the V&A at Dundee, which is planned for a site beside the RRS Discovery – built out into the River Tay. World famous architect Frank Gehry, who already designed the Dundee Maggie’s Centre, is rumoured to be very interested.
The V&A project, which Abertay is a member of, will give the city a world-class home for touring art and design exhibitions. V&A Director Sir Mark Jones, an Honorary Graduate of Abertay, has already said the scheme will allow unprecedented access to the museum’s extensive collections.
The planned opening is now just four years’ away, so Abertay’s next group of undergraduate art and design students will be preparing their degree show just as the V&A gets ready to launch. There has simply never been a better time to study in Dundee.
Relevant courses at Abertay
Abertay offers a range of art, design and visual media courses:
Undergraduate
BA (Hons) Computer Arts
BA (Hons) Media, Culture & Society
BA (Hons) Visual Communication & Media Design
Postgraduate
MA/PGDip Game Art & Animation
MProf Games Development
*Courses under development and subject to approval