When it comes to creativity, large cities tend to hog the limelight. From artists studios and galleries to framing shops, London is widely regarded as the beating heart of the UK’s visual arts scene. However, there is also a thriving creative scene in many of our regional towns and cities, and especially the small Scottish city of Dundee. Here’s a closer look.
The surprising rise of Dundee
The city of Dundee is situated on the banks of the River Tay on Scotland’s east coast, about 60 miles north of Edinburgh. It was traditionally associated with marine industries such as shipbuilding and whaling, but in recent years it has carved out a whole new identity for itself as a thriving creative hub.
UNESCO City of Design
In 2014, Dundee was inducted into the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, and is currently the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design, ranking alongside Berlin, Istanbul, and Montreal. This is a remarkable achievement for a city of 148,000 people, far away from the conventional centre of the arts scene in London.
The city has over 600 pieces of public art at various locations, and even has its own fully funded public art programme. You can follow much loved art trails including the Maggie’s Penguin and the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail, among many others, and street art is everywhere you look, from parks to bus stops.
Annie Marrs, lead officer for Unesco City of Design Dundee, told the Guardian: The designation recognises everything that was happening here already and it also gives us access to so much.”
The Dundee Design Festival
Last month saw the successful fifth Dundee Design Festival take place at a former Michelin factory in the north east of the city. The festival is held every two years and features the work of over 180 designers, with a range of media from textiles to ceramics, digital art, screenprints, and biophilic design.
Ms Marrs explained: “For us, it’s about getting design and creativity out into communities across the city. With the festival, we want to build capacity, grow skills, employ people and create opportunities to make a living from being a designer here.”
The Victoria and Albert Museum Dundee
Scotland’s first design museum opened in 2018. Designed by Kengo Kuma, the striking waterfront building is the jewel in the crown of a £1bn regeneration of the former dockland areas. The V&A has rotated exhibitions featuring world-class displays of fashion, video game design, industrial design, architecture, and more.
The museum’s director, Leonie Bell, told The Guardian: “I don’t think there’s another place in the UK that could have this building. With all our history and now the art school, the Unesco designation and the incredibly epic and exciting journey the design festival is on, you’ve got a real layering of design heritage in Dundee, but also the potential to use it and keep the future journey going.”
Thriving art and design schools
Dundee is home to one of the UK’s best regarded art schools, the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. Its annual degree show is highly regarded and many students opt to stay and work in the city after graduation.
Dundee is also known as the video game capital of the UK, with several production studios and groundbreaking degrees offered by Abertay University.
Comic book legacy
The video game industry was perhaps a natural progression from the city’s legacy as the birthplace of much loved comics such as The Beano and The Dandy, which went on to be the best selling comic book series in the world.
Dundee also has a major art gallery, The McManus, which is celebrated for the range and quality of its collections. There’s also a lively music and theatre scene, and a vibrant crafting community.
Those who work and live in Dundee attribute its success to its size: neither too big, nor too small. There’s enough variety and buzz for something to always be going on, but it’s compact enough to maintain connectivity and communication.
Definitely food for thought if you are looking for somewhere interesting to visit, or perhaps even go to art school or relocate to evolve your artistic career.