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McManus Connections Reaches Out!
McManus Connections Reaches Out!
What a lovely visit! Kids loved experimenting with all the crafts on offer. Great interacting with all the staff. Thank you all! (participant)
The Creative Learning Team are passionate about learning and using art and creativity to work with Dundee communities. Our team frequently sees the power of art to support improvements to health and wellbeing outcomes; to foster increased confidence; and to nurture strengthening of personal connections and relationships, within family groups, community and participant groups. McManus Connections aims to position The McManus as an open, positive and welcoming destination that narrates stories of Dundee’s rich heritage and history for a broader and more diverse range of…
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Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards: Dundee
In partnership with Creative Scotland #VACMAScotland #VACMADundee
Autumn Deadline: 5pm, 21 October 2025
Winter Deadline: 5pm, 3 February 2026
In partnership with Creative Scotland, the Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards: Dundee has been established to support Dundee-based visual artists and craft practitioners in their creative and professional development.
The awards are intended to encourage artists to live and work in Dundee and to ensure that the arts play a vital and lasting role in the city.
The Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards
There are two levels of bursaries offered by the VACMA scheme, you should apply for the one that best suits your situation.
£500 Early-Career Bursary: for artists and makers who have graduated within the…
New exhibition Highlights Scottish Artists who became Global Stars of Art History
Border Crossings: Ten Scottish Masters of Modern Art
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum
Opens Saturday 28 June 2025. Runs until Sunday 14 June 2026
FREE
Ten pioneering modern Scottish artists are the subject of a new exhibition at The McManus, opening later this month.
The bold visions and international acclaim have placed them among the greats of global art history. These artists are Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Robert Colquhoun, William Crozier, Alan Davie, William Gear, William Johnstone, Robert MacBryde, Eduardo Paolozzi, William Scott and William Turnbull.
All ten made a unique contribution to the development of modern art worldwide. All ten left their home country to achieve success. All ten were immersed in international developments in art,…
International Museum Day 2025: The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities
International Museum Day 2025: The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities
To celebrate International Museum Day 2025, the museum's Creative Learning Team profile some of their recent community work. The team are passionate about creativity and self-expression, and the different ways that being creative can empower individuals and communities to tell their own stories and share their experiences. Responding to and re-interpreting our museum collections can give opportunities for new reflections on histories and the chance to include new perspectives that help shape our shared future.
Art Angel Community Collaborative projectWorking collaboratively with Art Angel, we offered a group of adults the opportunity to engage in a mixture of creative activities. The…
Four Brothers' Heroic WWII Medals on Display at The McManus in Dundee Ahead of VE Day
Ahead of the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, four Military Crosses from the same family have gone on display at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum. The medals tell the extraordinary story of wartime heroics of four brothers.
The 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…
New Art Exhibition Highlighting Ocean Sound Pollution Coming to The McManus
Starting at the end of May, a unique ceramic artwork called Sounding Line by Mella Shaw will go on display at The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum.
The first UK institutional solo show from artist Mella Shaw is designed to raise awareness of how man-made underwater sound, like sonar, can harm whales. Sound pollution can deafen and confuse marine animals, making them come up to the surface too quickly and wash up on shore.
Mella was inspired to make this artwork after almost a 100 whales were found dead on beaches across Scotland and Ireland in 2018. This was largely unreported at the time.
Sounding Line includes large clay sculptures that were inspired by the tiny ear bones of whales. With permission from NatureScot, Mella made her own clay using whale bone.…
McManus and THAT Partnership Helps Participants with Long-Term Health Conditions
Drawing inspiration from the current exhibition, A Weather Eye at The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum, the museum's Creative Learning Team has delivered the fifth partnership project with THAT (Tayside Healthcare Arts Trust).
The project was co-designed to provide person centred learning experiences and creative participation for people affected by long-term health conditions such as stroke, acquired brain injury, chronic pain and others.
In this eight-week block, Artists Laura Lyon and Nicola Wiltshire drew upon, A Weather Eye, to inspire participants to experiment with a wide range of fine art and mark making techniques, including working with collage, chalks, oil pastels, paints and combinations of these materials to explore texture within their work.
…
Final Edition of 'Small Steps' Dundee Women's Trail Leaflet Launched
The fourth and final edition of the 'Small Steps' Dundee Women's Trail leaflet has been launched, offering children and families an engaging way to learn about notable women connected to Dundee.
Between October and December 2024, The McManus’s Creative Learning Team collaborated with Dundee Libraries and Dundee Women’s Trail to provide 92 primary 5/6 pupils from St Ninian's RC Primary School and Rowantree Primary School the opportunity to create a new, child-friendly leaflet. This edition builds on the existing ‘Small Steps’ leaflets released between 2021 and 2025.
The project aimed to help young people explore the lives of seven more women from the Dundee Women’s Trail who have made significant contributions to society in Dundee and beyond.
These women include:
…
Art Angel Project Celebrated at The McManus
The Creative Learning team at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum held a showcase of artwork to celebrate their successful partnership with Art Angel.
Art Angel is a local organisation at the forefront of supporting people with mental health problems. The charity aims to support people in their attempts to get better and stay well through active participation in the arts.
The McManus collaborated with Art Angel to offer a group of 15 adults the opportunity to engage in a mixture of creative activities including printmaking, photography, painting and collage, which were delivered both onsite and through outreach across the two organisations. With behind-the-scenes curatorial talks, guided gallery tours, and access to take home art materials, the project encouraged…
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum to receive funding from Northwood Charitable Trust
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum, managed by Leisure & Culture Dundee, will receive funding of £75000 over the next three years from the Northwood Charitable Trust. This backing will allow the museum’s Creative Learning Team to develop a new learning & engagement project called ‘McManus Connections’ which will focus on helping children, families and young people most in need.
This project will deliver creative opportunities including outreach sessions, museum- based gallery tours, holiday programmes, large-scale co-delivered events and co-creation with groups of new learning resources and activities.
The funding will also allow the team to expand on support for positive mental health within educational settings, families, non-traditional family groups…
The Burns Club Banner at The McManus
Dundee Burns Club Banner to Go on Display in Time for Burns Night
As Scotland prepares to celebrate Burns Night on Saturday 25 January, The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum has put a historic Dundee Burns Club banner on display for the next four weeks.
This important piece of cultural heritage, beautifully crafted from blue and brown silk, shows two hands reaching across inside a wreath and within a scroll lies Burns’ phrase, “For Auld Lang Syne” and the words, “The Dundee Burns Club Instd 1860,”
The banner holds historical significance, as it was featured during the unveiling of the Burns statue which still proudly sits outside The McManus, then known as the Albert Institute. The members of the Dundee Burns Club, formed in 1860, raised money to have this…
