The Duncan of Jordanstone College Collection

The University Museum Collections include an expanding selection of art works by staff and students of Duncan of Jordanstone College, now part of the University. The majority of these are drawings and paintings, though we also have examples of printmaking, sculpture, textiles, artists books, video art, ceramics and silver.

Dundee's Art College dates back much earlier than the founding of Duncan of Jordanstone College on Perth Road in 1953. It began as part of the Technical Institute opened in 1888, though moves had first been made to set up an art school in the 1850s.

The Technical Institute was built on Small's Wynd and shared facilities with the newly-established University College Dundee. Art was taught there from the start, but the arrival of Thomas Delgaty Dunn as Art Master in 1892 saw a significant expansion of the subject, and the College today regards this as its date of foundation.

By 1905 the building was becoming seriously overcrowded, and money was raised to move to new premises on Bell Street.

The building was completed in 1911, and was renamed the Dundee Technical College & School of Art.

In 1909 James Duncan of Jordanstone bequeathed £60,000 towards founding an independent art school in Dundee. Various problems meant that it was not until the 1930s that plans were finalised for a new College on Perth Road.

The war then caused further delays and the first part of the new Dundee College of Art opened in 1955. The college was eventually renamed Duncan of Jordanstone College in 1962.