Search for Museums and Paintings

Aberdeen / United Kingdom

Aberdeen ; Scots: Aiberdeen, listen ; Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain [opəɾ ˈɛ.ɛɲ]; Latin: Aberdonia) is a city in northeast Scotland. It is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 39th most populous built-up area, with an official 2018 population estimate of 198,880 for the city of Aberdeen and 227,560 for the local council area.During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which can sparkle like silver because of its high mica content. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, Aberdeen has been known as the off-shore oil capital of Europe. The area around Aberdeen has been settled for at least 8,000 years, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don. The city has a long, sandy coastline and a marine climate, the latter resulting in chilly summers and mild winters. Aberdeen received Royal burgh status from David I of Scotland , transforming the city economically. The city has two universities, the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and Robert Gordon University, which was awarded university status in 1992, making Aberdeen the educational centre of north-east Scotland. The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world and the seaport is the largest in the north-east of Scotland.Aberdeen used to host the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, a major international event which attracted up to 1000 of the most talented young performing arts companies but the council ended funding in 2017 and the festival was wound up in 2018. In 2015, Mercer named Aberdeen the 57th most liveable city in the world, as well as the fourth most liveable city in Britain. In 2012, HSBC named Aberdeen as a leading business hub and one of eight 'super cities' spearheading the UK's economy, marking it as the only city in Scotland to receive this accolade. In 2018, Aberdeen was found to be the best city in the UK to start a business in a study released by card payment firm Paymentsense.

Aberdeen Art Gallery

Aberdeen / United Kingdom

Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884, in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900 it received the art collection of Alexander Macdonald, a local granite merchant.The gallery is noted for its fine collection of modern Scottish and international art, including works by Ken Currie, Gilbert & George, Ivor Abrahams, Bridget Riley and Bruce McLean. The permanent collection includes 18th-century works by Henry Raeburn, William Hogarth, Allan Ramsay and Joshua Reynolds, and 20th-century works by Paul Nash and Francis Bacon, the Post-Impressionists and the Scottish Colourists, as well as applied arts and crafts. The central hall is supported by granite columns in a variety of colours, derived from different quarries in the local area and far beyond. At the western end of the building, with a room inside and a monument outside, is a major war memorial. The Memorial Court court has a display of several books of remembrance and rolls of honour, commemorating the fallen of World War I, World War II, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets in World War II, and from conflicts after 1945. The Gallery was closed for a programme of renovations commencing in 2015. The gallery re-opened in November 2019, with comedian John Bishop, being one of the first people to visit.

Aberdeen Maritime Museum

Aberdeen / United Kingdom

Aberdeen Maritime Museum is a maritime museum in Aberdeen, Scotland. The museum is situated on the historic Shiprow in the heart of the city, near the harbour. It makes use of a range of buildings including a former church and Provost Ross' House, one of the oldest domestic buildings in the city. The museum tells the story of the city's long relationship with the North Sea. Collections cover shipbuilding, fast sailing ships, fishing and port history, and displays on the North Sea oil industry. Collection highlights include ship plans and photographs from the major shipbuilders of Aberdeen including Hall, Russell & Company Ltd, Alexander Hall and Sons, Duthie and John Lewis & Co. Ltd and Walter Hood & Co. Displays include ship and oil rig models, paintings, clipper ship and "North Boats" material, fishing, whalers and commercial trawlers, North Sea oil industry, and the marine environment.

University of Aberdeen

Aberdeen / United Kingdom

The University of Aberdeen is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is an ancient university founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland, petitioned Pope Alexander VI on behalf of James IV, King of Scots to establish King's College, making it Scotland's third-oldest university and the fifth-oldest in the English-speaking world. Aberdeen is consistently ranked among the top 200 universities in the world and is ranked within the top 20 universities in the United Kingdom according to the Guardian. The university comprises three colleges - King's College, Marischal College, and Christ's College - that are now mainly ceremonial. The university as it is currently constituted was formed in 1860 by a merger between King's College and Marischal College, a second university founded in 1593 as a Protestant alternative to the former. The university's iconic buildings act as symbols of wider Aberdeen, particularly Marischal College in the city centre and the crown steeple of King's College in Old Aberdeen. There are two campuses; the predominantly utilised King's College campus dominates the section of the city known as Old Aberdeen, which is approximately two miles north of the city centre. Although the original site of the university's foundation, most academic buildings apart from the King's College Chapel and Quadrangle were constructed in the 20th century during a period of significant expansion. The university's Foresterhill campus is next to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and houses the School of Medicine and Dentistry as well as the School of Medical Sciences. Together these buildings form one of Europe's largest health campuses. The annual income of the institution for 2017–18 was £219.5 million of which £56.1 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £226.8 million.Aberdeen has 14,775 students from undergraduate to doctoral level , including many international students. An abundant range of disciplines are taught at the university, with 650 undergraduate degree programmes offered in the 2012–13 academic year. Aberdeen has educated a wide range of notable alumni, and the university played key roles in the Scottish Reformation, Scottish Enlightenment, and the Scottish Renaissance. Five Nobel laureates have since been associated with the university: two in Chemistry, one in Physiology or Medicine, one in Physics, and one in Peace.

Gordon Highlanders Museum

Aberdeen / United Kingdom

The Gordon Highlanders Museum is based in Aberdeen, Scotland and celebrates the story of the Gordon Highlanders regiment, which originated as the 92nd Regiment of Foot in 1794, became the Gordon Highlanders in 1881 and was then amalgamated into a new larger unit of the British Army in 1994. It is a 5-star Scottish Tourist Board attraction, as of 2019, the only one in Aberdeen.