Culture
Dundee is home to Scotland's only full-time repertory ensemble, established in the 1930s. One of its alumni, Hollywood actor Brian Cox is a native of the city. The Dundee Repertory Theatre, built in 1982 is the base for Scottish Dance Theatre.
Dundee's principal concert auditorium, the Caird Hall (named after its benefactor, the jute baron James Key Caird) in the City Square regularly hosts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Various smaller venues host local and international musicians during Dundee's annual Jazz, Guitar and Blues Festivals. The Dundee Contemporary Arts, which opened in 1999 in the city's cultural quarter, is home to both an art gallery and art house cinema.
The city's main museum and art gallery, McManus Galleries is in Albert Square. The exhibits include a collection of fine and decorative art, items from Dundee's history and natural history artefacts. Britain's only full-time public observatory, Mills Observatory at the summit of the city's Balgay Hill was gifted to the city by linen manufacturer and keen amateur scientist, John Mills in 1935. Sensation Science Centre in the Greenmarket is a science centre based on the five senses through a series of interactive shows and exhibits. Verdant Works is a museum dedicated to the once dominant jute industry in Dundee and is based in a former jute mill. The University of Dundee also runs several public museums and galleries, including the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum and the Tayside Medical History Museum. A new £47 million pound centre for art and design known as the "V&A at Dundee" is to be built south of Craig Harbour onto the River Tay for completion in 2015. The new museum may bring another 500,000 extra visitors to the city and create up to 900 jobs for the area.
The city's archives and records are mostly kept by two archives, Dundee City Archives, which are operated by Dundee City Council and the University of Dundee's Archive Services. Dundee City Archives holds the official records of the city and of the former Tayside Regional Council. the archive also holds the records of various people groups and organizations connected to the city. The University's Archive Services hold a wide range of material relating to the University and its predecessor institutions and to individuals associated with the University such as D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Archive Services is also home to athe archives of several individuals, businesses and organizations based in Dundee and the surrounding area. The records held include a substantial number of business archives relating to the jute and linen industry in Dundee, records of other businesses including the archives of the Alliance Trust and the department store G. L. Wilson, the records of the Brechin Diocese of the Scottish Episcopal Church and the NHS Tayside Archive. The same archive also holds the Michael Peto collection which includes thousands of the famed photojournalist's photographs, negatives, slides, publications and papers.
Dundee is home to DC Thomson & Son Ltd established in 1905, which produces over 200 million magazines, newspapers and comics every year, which include The Beano, The Dandy and the The Press and Journal. Dundee has a strong literary heritage, with several authors having been born, lived or studied in the city. These include A. L. Kennedy, Rosamunde Pilcher, Kate Atkinson, Thomas Dick, Mary Shelley, Mick McCluskey, John Burnside and Neil Forsyth. The Dundee International Book Prize is a biennial competition open to new authors, offering a prize of £10,000 and publication by Polygon Books. Past winners have included Andrew Murray Scott, Claire-Marie Watson and Malcolm Archibald. William McGonagall, regularly cited as the "world's worst poet", worked and wrote in the city, often giving performances of his work in pubs and bars. Many of his poems are about the city and events therein, such as his work The Tay Bridge Disaster. City of Recovery Press was founded in Dundee, and has become a controversial figure in documenting the darker side of the city.
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Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Unthinking people will often try to teach you how to do the things which you can do better than you can be taught to do them. If you are sure of all this, you can start to add to your value as a mother by learning the things that can be taught, for the best of our civilization and culture offers much that is of value, if you can take it without loss of what comes to you naturally.”
—D.W. Winnicott (20th century)
“To assault the total culture totally is to be free to use all the fruits of mankind’s wisdom and experience without the rotten structure in which these glories are encased and encrusted.”
—Judith Malina (b. 1926)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)