News

The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum invited Chris Law MP, ahead of Nelson Mandela Day on Sunday 18 July, to view items on loan from his collection that they have been put on display in their Making of Modern Dundee Gallery. Included in the display are signed first editions of 'In His Own Words' and 'The Long Walk to Freedom' by Nelson Mandela as well as ephemera and interesting items relating to the campaign to free Mandela that have been collected over the past 20 years.  

Nelson Mandela, the former-President of South Africa, spent 27 years in prison on Robben Island under South African Apartheid, from 1962 until his eventual release at the end of Apartheid in 1989. The Anti-Apartheid Scottish Committee formed in Dundee in 1976, and was active under that…

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The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum will be returning to 7 day opening from Monday 28 June, 2021. The galleries have been open 5 days a week since April and are now ready, once again, to provide their famous warm welcome every day. 

Visitors and Dundonians alike will be able to experience Dundee's museum collection in eight beautiful open gallery spaces. The galleries act as the City's civic memory, housing fascinating individual items of art, which provide an engaging insight into the history of Dundee.  

Also on show are two major exhibitions, 'A Love Letter to Dundee: Joseph McKenzie Photographs 1964-1987' and 'Time and Tide: The Transformation of The Tay' which both focus on change in the city. 

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New photography exhibition shares snapshots of life in Tayside as partnership between The McManus and Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust frames art as essential healthcare.

Lockdown project sees participants with long term health conditions guided by photographer and artist David P Scott to develop their own photographic style.
  Art Fund supported project worked with ten budding photographers documenting their lives in lockdown and taking inspiration from A Love Letter to Dundee: Joseph McKenzie Photographs 1964-1987 exhibition currently running at The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum.
  Loving Photography exhibition goes online and runs from 8th April to 29th May 2021.

This Thursday 8th April sees the launch of a new exhibition highlighting the…

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The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum has embarked on an ambitious six-month remote learning and engagement project to help combat isolation heightened by the current COVID-19 pandemic. 'Reconnect' will enable the museum to continue to provide valuable cultural engagements, resources and experiences for community groups with long term health conditions and families groups. This will enhance positive cultural participation and ensure that isolated and shielding participants can still benefit from the rich experiences the museum has to offer.

An integrated team of museum educators, curators, cultural partners and freelance artists has been brought together to support those most in need. Participant groups involved are from Alzheimer Scotland, Home-Start Dundee and…

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As lockdown restrictions begin to ease, art historian and curator Alice Strang reflects on the past few months in paintings in our modern Scottish art collection.

Alberto Morrocco (1917-98), The Striped Curtain, 1968 © The Artist’s Estate

Living under lockdown has meant that most of us have spent more time than usual at home. The Striped Curtain of 1968 by Alberto Morrocco (1917-98) celebrates our everyday surroundings in a lively kitchen interior. Morrocco was born in Aberdeen to Italian parents. He studied at Gray’s School of Art in the city, under James Cowie (1886-1956) and Robert Sivell (1888-1958). In 1941 he married Vera Mercer and following his appointment to the staff of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1950, they moved to Dundee. Morrocco was…

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Last night, The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum  struck gold at the 2019/20 Scottish Thistle Awards National Final at Edinburgh International Conference Centre where they won Best Visitor Attraction.

The Scottish Thistle Awards, now in their 27th year, help shine the spotlight on individuals and businesses going above and beyond to create a destination and visitor experience worth talking about amongst our valuable tourism industry. They champion the very best of the Scottish tourism industry, celebrating innovation, success and excellence in the sector.

2019 saw almost 600 entries submitted, including more than 1,000 nominations from members of the public keen to give hotels, restaurants, B&Bs, visitor attractions and individuals the opportunity to…

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Image credit: James Morrison painting at his easel in the Arctic © The Artist

Don’t miss your chance to see our 5 star ‘Among the Polar Ice’: exhibition closing 8 March, 2020.

Featured as one of the Scotsman’s art critics’ favourite shows of the year, Among the Polar Ice will soon end its run at The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum.

Spanning 200 years, the exhibition brings together paintings, photographs and diaries by artists who have experienced life in the most fragile of landscapes.

Central to the display are a remarkable group of paintings by two of Scotland’s finest contemporary artists, James Morrison and Frances Walker. Morrison’s Arctic paintings capture the glacial landscape of Otto Fiord, Ellesmere Island, which lies within the…

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Eighty years after the start of the Second World war, an extraordinary story of wartime heroics has been revealed with the donation of four Military Crosses from the same family to The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum.

Brothers from the Rae family survived some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War and returned to their hometown of Dundee with remarkable battlefield achievements and recognition for gallantry in the field. Indeed one brother, even received an additional bar on his military cross for his courageous actions.

Stanley, Ian, Douglas and Bruce Rae were the sons of Stephen and Agnes Rae of Encliffe, Albany Road, West Ferry. Their father was a partner in McIntyre & Rae, a well-known accountancy firm which he had founded in 1910 in…

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Exhibition: Among the Polar Ice The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum Albert Square, Meadowside
Dundee, DD1 1DA Saturday 7 September, 2019 to Sunday 8 March, 2020

The most fragile landscapes on earth are the subject of a new exhibition at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum. Among the Polar Ice brings together contemporary and historic works by artists who have experienced life on the ice.

Selected from Dundee’s nationally significant fine art and whaling collection, the exhibition showcases a small but growing collection of polar artworks which spans 200 years. At its heart are two major series of artworks by leading Scottish artists - Frances Walker and James Morrison.

The Antarctic Suite is the result of Walker’s voyage to the South Pole…

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Through a fortunate stroke of serendipity, a Dundee illustrator has been matched with her other place of work as part of Oor Wullie’s Big Bucket Trail. The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum is by chance where Sanna Dyker is employed as a Visitor Assistant. The cultural attraction is also where she has now become the artist painting the Oor Wullie statue sponsored by the museum.

Billy Gartley, Head of Cultural Services at Leisure & Culture Dundee, couldn’t believe the good fortune with The McManus being matched with one of their own members of staff and is delighted by the coincidence.

“It’s fantastic that we have been put together with one of our Visitor Assitants. Sanna has worked here for a number of years and we all know what a talented illustrator she…

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