Welcome to the Art in the Environment database, a digital store of Aberdeenshire artefacts that allows for the public documentation of the region's diverse vernacular material culture. This page was generously donated to the Elphinstone Institute by the Banff and Buchan Arts Forum (BBAF) when the latter organisation was dissolved.
A pilot scheme for the BBAF Art in the Environment project commenced in November 2000 when, with a successful application to Aberdeenshire council for funding, a project worker was appointed to carry out a small pilot scheme. Following that, BBAF project funds to expand the AITE database to cover the whole county and to maintain and update the database.
It was the aim of the Forum to collect and collate information on, and images of, art – widely defined – in the environment, throughout Aberdeenshire. This data is an invaluable research tool, useful to residents, scholars, artists, and tourists, and a considerable asset in the promotion of our visual culture.
Artist and craftsman David Watson Hood maintained the website of the Art in the Aberdeenshire Environment online database for 16 years from its inception as a millennium project. He has also acted as a contributor and its chief researcher and editor.
The diverse range of artefacts spans Neolithic stone circles to modern public sculpture. The Elphinstone Institute is pleased to host this continually growing searchable online database.