George Washington Wilson (1823-93) pioneered the bouquet photomontage portrait of leading Aberdonians (1852), a useful visual analogy for gathering across culture and society, albeit one which we believe benefits from greater diversity of purpose and personnel in 2025.
The GWW Centre for Art and Visual Culture relaunched in November 2024 under new co-directorship. While seeking to retain the existing interdisciplinary inquiry into art history, visual culture and heritage curation, this is now paired with a deeper emphasis on innovative practice-based research. We take a dialogic approach and, in doing so, refocus the research showcased through the GWW Centre towards greater cultural integration, both internally with University Collections as part of the Research Environment offer for our disciplines, and further afield to wider Scottish cultural landscape and international sphere. Fostering such networks brings about greater reputational and impactful opportunities as well as early career planning for our student body.
The GWW Centre offers a series of multi-media events (free and open to all academic citizens and members of the public) where research talks are accompanied by cinematic screenings, tours and in-conversations. In 2024-25 we have heard from Dr Noelia Fernandez Garcia on a Ukrainian documentary and Dr Mhairi Maxwell (NMS) on co-curation of Tartan at V&A Dundee, with an annual workshop 'Through the Generations' forthcoming (28 May 2025).