Latest News
New boxset of singer-songwriter Michael Marra’s work launched at The McManus
The launch of a limited edition boxset charting the career of one of Dundee’s most loved singers took place at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum last night with stars from the music and literary world sharing an evening of celebration and song with the musician’s family and friends.
Award winning Scottish Author Val McDermid sang Frida Kahlo’s Visit to the Taybridge Bar and American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III travelled from the US to perform a version of Marra’s classic Hermless while daughter of Michael, Alice Marra sang Heavens Hound with Duende Voices to an invited audience.
A Dundee native, Michael Marra was one of Scotland’s foremost cultural figures. Known as the "Bard of Dundee,” his work over more than four decades often transcended the…
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Extension of ‘Reflections on Celts’ exhibition celebrated
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum is celebrating an extension to the ‘Reflections on Celts’ exhibition until Sunday March 26, 2017 with the online release of a dynamic 3D reconstruction and visualisation of the Iron Age hillfort on Dundee Law from the exhibition.
‘Reflections on Celts’ is a spotlight tour organised in partnership with National Museums Scotland and the British Museum. It also features two Iron Age mirrors – the British Museum’s Holcombe mirror and National Museums Scotland’s Balmaclellan mirror – which tell very different stories, and help us to understand the relationships between communities in Britain 2,000 years ago. The McManus is the last leg of the tour and the exhibition was due to come to a close in December. Organisers have now…
Scottish art takes centre stage in Dundee
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum is staging two exhibitions on Scottish painting which feature artworks from the City’s nationally significant Fine Art collection from Friday November 4, 2016.
‘Sense of Place’ focuses on landscapes by Scottish artists, starting with the pioneering work of the Glasgow Boys. Inspired by French practice, ‘The Boys’ moved out of the studio to paint out-of-doors, en plein air. With this new spirit of naturalism, artists were able to capture the effects of light and the weather, breathing new life into Scottish art.
Throughout the twentieth century the strong tradition of landscape painting continued with the vibrant and colourful paintings by the Scottish Colourists. The inter-war years are represented by the intellectual and…
Appeal to find former Dundee Museum Club members
Curators at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum have launched an appeal to find members of the Dundee Museum Club from the 1960s and 70s. The club worked on a model of Finavon hillfort in 1970 that is now featuring in the current ‘Reflections on Celts’ exhibition and staff are keen to get in touch with former members.
The scaled down model followed a 1930s excavation report that showed the original Finavon hillfort in Angus had walls over six metres thick and between three and five metres high. The fort has been dated to the 7th century BC. It was excavated by Professor V. Gordon Childe in the 1930s. In the interior of the fort he discovered a well, a row of dwellings with hearths and evidence of spinning, pottery making and metal working. At the end of its life the…
Oor Wullie statue has new home at The McManus
Today, the aptly named ‘Oor Artifacts’ Wullie – part of the hugely successful bucket trail - was welcomed to his new home at The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum. Leisure & Culture Dundee were successful in their bid for the statue at the recent auction for the ARCHIE Foundation and decided to put him on show in one of the city’s favourite buildings for everyone to enjoy.
‘Oor Artifacts’ was designed by Andy MacVicar who is a Scottish sculptor with a Masters of Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. A traditionally trained bronze foundryman for a leading Scottish fine art foundry, his work has been exhibited internationally.
The statue was inspired by an imagined Oor Wullie comic strip, in which Oor Wullie visits the renovated…
A British Museum Spotlight Loan Troy: beauty and heroism
The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum
Thursday 19 May - Sunday 14 August 2022
A British Museum Spotlight Loan Troy: beauty and heroism is going on show at The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum from Thursday 19 May until Sunday 14 August 2022. Key objects from the Troy: myth and reality exhibition will be accessible to audiences as part of the British Museum's National Programmes. Complementing objects from the British Museum will be loans of casts of sculpture from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and the University of Dundee. Objects from Dundee City Council's own collections will also be featured.
Helen and Achilles are central characters in the story of the Trojan War. Helen is the most beautiful woman in the world. Her…
DJCAD Scrub Hub to be remembered in McManus collection
A set of scrubs sewn by a University of Dundee volunteer responding to the need for medical clothing in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic have been donated to The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum. The scrubs, sewn by Jane Keith, founder of the DJCAD Scrub Hub, will be placed in the permanent collection at The McManus, serving as a reminder of the collaborative effort of University staff and the local community during the pandemic.
Last year, when Covid-19 first took hold on the city, NHS Tayside asked all patient-facing staff who previously wore their own clothes, such as doctors and consultants, to wear scrubs in order to minimise the increased risk of infection and cross-contamination. The additional demand for scrubs was mirrored across the UK, leading to a…
