- Wikidata identifier:
- Q116738949
- Instance of:
- university museum
- Museum/collection status:
- Accredited museum
- Accreditation number:
- 2183
- Persistent shareable link for this record:
- https://museumdata.uk/museums/q116738949/
Collection-level records:
-
Collection overview (Collection development policy)
The RGU Art & Heritage Collections comprise over 8,000 objects, including work created by university alumni, together with additional materials reflecting methods of teaching and study in art education, engineering, pharmacy, life science and domestic science. The collections celebrate the creative culture and talent formed in the North-East of Scotland while providing a record of industrial, pedagogical and technological change.
Art and Architecture
The Art collection forms the largest part of the University Collections. Most work dates from the 1950s to the present day, but there is also a significant quantity of earlier work. Not all disciplines practised at Gray’s School of Art are equally represented, with a heavy bias towards painting, drawing, printmaking and ceramics. While this has been corrected in relation to new acquisitions of student work, the historical imbalance remains. The Architecture collection contains teaching equipment, ephemera and student drawings dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, with more recent student work being retained for the collections from 2007.The Art and Architecture collection also contains a large group of landscape architecture and art antiquarian books.
Science and Society
This collection comprises material relating to the general history of the University, including now-defunct departments such as the School of Navigation. It contains teaching equipment, teaching aids and photographs relevant to the first School of Pharmacy in the UK and to the former School of Engineering and Chemistry. Notebooks, samples of dressmaking, catering and laundry equipment are retained from the School of Domestic Science. Over 100 Needlework objects are held in the collection. These are part of the Needlework Development Scheme, a collection of over 3,500 items which was disbursed between various UK universities, colleges and museums when funding for the scheme was withdrawn in 1961.
Source: Collection development policy
Date: 2025
Licence: CC BY-NC