The city of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

has amenities that cover a wide range of cultural activities, including a selection of museums and galleries. There are festivals and theatrical events throughout the year.

Notable attractions

Aberdeen Art Gallery 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 ...

Grampian Hospitals Arts Trust
* Aberdeen Central Library – containing more than 60,000 volumes. *

Aberdeen Maritime Museum 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 the former Trinity Congregational Ch ...

The Belmont Cinema The Belmont Cinema is an arthouse cinema on Belmont Street, Aberdeen, Scotland and is the last remaining independent cinema in the city. The cinema building is the property of Aberdeen City Council and is temporarily closed following the col ...

* Cineworld Cinema (formerly a Virgin Cinema then a UGC Cinema) * Codonas Amusement Park, Sunset Boulevard & Miami Beach * Doonies Farm *The

Gordon Highlanders Museum The Gordon Highlanders Museum is based in Aberdeen, Scotland and celebrates the story of the Gordon Highlanders regiment, which originated as the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot in 1794, merged with the 75th (Stirlingshire) Regimen ...

* His Majesty's Theatre *

James Dun's House James Dun's House is located in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is located at Schoolhill and was a popular museum and gallery with changing exhibitions, but in 2001 was converted into a hairdresser and cafe. It was built in 1769 and was owned by James Du ...

* King's College * The Lemon Tree *

Marischal Museum Marischal Museum was a museum in Aberdeen, Scotland, specialising in anthropology and artifacts from cultures around the world. The museum was a part of the University of Aberdeen, situated at Marischal College, a grand Gothic Revival architec ...

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has been the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. The building was constructed for and is on long-term lease fr ...

*The Museum of Education Victorian Classroom *

Peacock visual arts Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are ...

* Provost Ross's House (contains the

) *

Provost Skene Sir George Skene of Fintray (1619–1708) was a Scottish merchant in the Baltic trade who served as Provost of the city of Aberdeen from 1676 to 1685. He was knighted in 1681. He was a burgh commissioner for Aberdeen in the Parliament of S ...

's House * Satrosphere Science Museum * Storybook Glen * The Tolbooth Museum at the Town House * Transition Extreme a £3 million project which contains a

skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipe ...

and a

climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with manufactured grips (or "holds") for the hands and feet. Most walls are located indoors, and climbing on such walls is often termed indoor climbing. Some walls are brick or wooden constr ...

. *

Vue Cinema Vue International ( , like "view"), is a multinational cinema holding company headquartered in London, England, and registered in St Helier, Jersey. It operates in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark as Vue, with international operations in ...

(formerly The Lighthouse Cinema then an ABC Cinema)

Theatre

Aberdeen has a thriving theatre scene with the largest theatrical events being held in His Majesty's Theatre. The smaller

Aberdeen Arts Centre Aberdeen Arts Centre is a theatre and arts centre on King Street, Aberdeen, King Street in Aberdeen, Scotland with a 350-seater auditorium. It is a Category A listed building. The building was originally the North Parish Church. The church wa ...

is a voluntary run theatre that normally caters for local events, often those held in the name of charity. The Lemon Tree is another small theatre that has small theatrical programmes such as pantomimes at Christmas and small charity events.

Art

Aberdeen gained prominence in the art world by introducing

Scottish art Scottish art is the body of visual art made in what is now Scotland, or about Scottish subjects, since prehistoric times. It forms a distinctive tradition within European art, but the political union with England has led its partial subsumation ...

to the rest of Britain and the world through the works of

George Jamesone George Jamesone (or Jameson) (c. 1587 – 1644) was a Scottish painter who is regarded as Scotland's first eminent portrait-painter. Early years He was born in Aberdeen, where his father, Andrew Jamesone, was a stonemason. His mother was Marj ...

. Jamesone's achievements provided the opportunity for other Scottish artists to follow in his footsteps and make their art available throughout Scotland, and the rest of the world. In 1884 a neo-Classical building was built for the purpose of displaying the world's finest art; subsequently this was called the

. Within this Gallery the impressive permanent painting collection of

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...

Ian Hamilton Finlay Ian Hamilton Finlay (28 October 1925 – 27 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener. Life Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to James Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Annie Pettigrew, both of Scots descent. He was educa ...

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

and

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that ...

have been held for over 100 years, allowing the inhabitants of Aberdeen and visitors to the city alike to admire their collected works in one central hub. Grampian Hospitals Arts Trust (GHAT) arose from the simple idea that improving the hospital environment by displaying art made everyone who spent time in the buildings feel better. GHAT strives to highlight culture as a central component of wellbeing and is a sector leader in developing bespoke arts projects for people visiting, working or utilising the services within hospitals and healthcare. The city is regularly visited by Scotland's National Arts Companies. The

houses a collection of

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

, Scottish and 20th Century British paintings as well as collections of silver and glass. It also includes The Alexander Macdonald Bequest, a collection of late 19th century works donated by the museum's first benefactor and a constantly changing collection of contemporary work and regular visiting exhibitions. In 2017, the

NuArt Festival The NuArt Festival is an annual Street Art festival traditionally held in September, in Stavanger (Norway), since 2001. Many associated artworks can be found in Stavanger, at Utsira and in Oslo. Since 2017, there is also a NuArt Festival in Abe ...

came to Aberdeen and saw the installation of

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant gr ...

in many places around the city, including a large mural on the side of the

Aberdeen Market Aberdeen Market was a shopping centre which faced on to Market Street in Aberdeen, Scotland. History The first indoor market on this spot was opened on 29 April 1842, but was destroyed by fire exactly 40 years later. It was rebuilt, and demoli ...

Places of artistic interest in Aberdeen

* Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum *

Gray's School of Art ''Gray's Anatomy'' is a reference book of human anatomy written by Henry Gray, illustrated by Henry Vandyke Carter and first published in London in 1858. It has had multiple revised editions, and the current edition, the 42nd (October 202 ...

Grampian Hospitals Art Trust
*

Peacock Visual Arts Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are ...

Famous Aberdeen artists

* James Cromar Watt *

John Phillip John Phillip (19 April 1817 – 27 February 1867) was a Scottish painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He started painting these studies after a trip to Spain in 1851. He was nicknamed John 'Spanish' Phillip. Life Phi ...

Museums

The

, located in

Shiprow Shiprow is a historic street in the heart of Aberdeen, Scotland, near the Aberdeen Harbour, harbour. Formerly the Shiprow sloped upward more gradually than it does now, and it crossed Union Street, Aberdeen, Union Street in a depression between ...

, tells the story of Aberdeen's links with the sea from the days of sail and

clipper ships A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were generally narrow for their lengt ...

to the latest oil and gas exploration technology. The museum includes a range of interactive exhibits and models, including an 8.5 m (28 ft) high model of the Murchison oil production platform and a 19th-century assembly taken from

Rattray Head Rattray Head (), historically Rattray Point, is a headland in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, on the north-east coast Scotland. To north lies Strathbeg Bay and Rattray Bay is to its south. The dunes at Rattray Head beach can be up to high and stretch ...

lighthouse. Provost Ross' House is the second oldest dwelling house in the city. It was built in 1593 and became the residence of

Provost John Ross Provost John Ross was Lord Provost in Aberdeen, Scotland from 1710 to 1712. He is most famous for the house he occupied in the 18th century from 1702. Provost Ross's House Built in 1593, the house is the second oldest house in the city. Provo ...

of Arnage in 1702. The house retains some original

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

features, including a kitchen, fireplaces and beam-and-board ceilings. The

tells the story of one of Scotland's best known regiments. The

holds the principal collections of the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

, comprising some 80,000 items in the areas of fine art, Scottish history and archaeology, and European, Mediterranean and Near Eastern archaeology. The museum is open to the public, but also provides an important resource for the University's students and researchers. The permanent displays and reference collections are augmented by regular temporary exhibitions.

Festivals

* Aberdeen International Football Festival (discontinued) *

Aberdeen International Youth Festival Aberdeen International Youth Festival was a festival of performing arts and one of Scotland's major international cultural events, which ran from 1981 to 2017. Each year the festival brought over 1000 young people in performing arts companies ...

— The World Festival of Youth Arts * DanceLive — Contemporary Dance Festival * Rootin' Aboot (discontinued) *

Sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

— North-East Scotland's festival of New Music * Triptych — popular music and spoken word (discontinued) *

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...

— the

Writers Festival (discontinued) * New Words — Festival of New Writing in Aberdeen City and Shire * Spectra Festival of Light - Scotland's Festival of Light

Music

Aberdeen's music scene includes a variety of live music venues including pubs, clubs, and a number of churches with thriving choirs. The music scene is particularly prevalent in the bars of Belmont Street.

Cèilidh A ( , ) or () is a traditional Scottish and Irish social gathering. In its most basic form, it simply means a social visit. In contemporary usage, it usually involves Dance (event), dancing and playing Gaelic music, Gaelic folk music, eithe ...

s are also common in some of the city's halls. Popular venues include The Lemon Tree, The Tunnels, the

Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre The Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (also known as the General Electric Exhibition Centre and often shortened to the AECC) was a large exhibition and conference complex, in the suburb of Bridge of Don, in Aberdeen, Scotland. The com ...

, and Aberdeen Music Hall. Aberdonian musicians include

Evelyn Glennie Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015. Early life Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire, in Scotland. The i ...

Seb Rochford Sebastian Rochford is a Scottish drummer and composer. He has recorded and released music as leader of the British band Polar Bear, as Kutcha Butcha and as part of numerous collaborations. Early life Rochford was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, a ...

and

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...

References

External links

The World Festival of Youth Arts - based in AberdeenAberdeen Music - Aberdeen's answer to CBBC, but with more tantrums and hissy-fitsDanceLive - festival of contemporary danceWhat's On in Aberdeen - Events guide: music, theatre, restaurants, exhibitions, children's events
{{DEFAULTSORT:Culture In Aberdeen Tourist attractions in Aberdeen