Join us to explore the university in a way you’ve never experienced before. As part of University of Dundee Museums’ well-being initiative, we are helping you discover new areas of the University and engage with its artworks, artefacts, culture and heritage.
The aim is to encourage you to engage with arts and heritage and provide more diverse opportunities to benefit well-being. They will help us connect, be active, keep learning and be mindful.
Drop by the Global Room (in College Hall, behind the Tower Building) fortnightly on a Wednesday afternoon any time between 3 and 4.30pm for the chance to get up close to some of our fascinating objects and take inspiration from them in a relaxed setting. In these mini-craft sessions you can write a poem, dress up paper-dolls and make your own beautiful prints. You will be provided with all the materials you need to create miniature artworks, poems, or a creative outlet of your choice to take home with you as a reminder of what you discovered that day.
25th Jan – Eye Test Poetry
Take closer a ‘look’ at some of our optometry instruments. From multicoloured lenses to optical illusions, there will be lots of artefacts from both our Medical History and Physiology collections for you to engage with. After this, there will be materials on hand to create a piece of ‘eye test poetry’ inspired by the Snellen’s letter chart.
8th Feb - Styrofoam Print Making (in the CreateSpace, ground floor of Dundee University Main Library)
In this mindful craft session, we’ll be having fun making some relief prints inspired by different artwork from the DJCAD printmaking collection. Enjoy the sounds and textures of sketching into the Styrofoam, and delight in revealing a beautiful colour washed image from our printing blocks using only a packet of felt tip pens!
22nd Feb - Moira Macgregor Fashion Illustration
After studying at the Dundee College of Art in the early 1950s, Moira Macgregor went on to an international career as a fashion illustrator, editor and painter. In this mindful crafting session, we will be looking at some of her iconic fashion illustrations. You will then have the chance to create a retro paper doll inspired by her work and clothed in your own creations.
8th March – Players' Portraits
On an upstairs shelf in Hawkhill House you'll find a set of collectable playing cards. They come from a series titled ‘Straight-line Caricatures’ designed by Dundee artist Alick P.F. Ritchie in 1926 for Players' Cigarettes. These cards depict eminent figures of the day. However, all 50 in this series are portraits of men so in honour of International Women’s Day we’re going to change that by making our own ‘straight line caricatures’ of women that inspire us.
22nd March – Botanical Prints and Pressings
The University Herbarium contains thousands of plant specimens, from Angus all the way to Darjeeling. Join us to relax and unwind with some leaf printing, flower pressing and botanical drawing, all inspired by the herbarium collection. You’ll get to look through the pages of flora and then have a go at making your own herbarium specimen sheet.