Aberdeen – Meg in Moscow

A couple of weeks ago I jetted off to Scotland for some professional development. My school is incredibly supportive when it comes to continuing our learning and I couldn’t appreciate it more. In the fall, I joined a ragtag bunch of a dozen art teachers stationed throughout Europe. When we met up in Luxembourg, we traded lesson ideas and did some place-based learning, taking in the city and making it our studio. Rubbings, painting sessions, and street sticker grabs fill my journal from that weekend.

This time, the group met up in Aberdeen, Scotland, for the kick-off weekend of the NuArt Aberdeen Festival. In the weeks prior, street artists the world over had descended upon this industrial northern Scottish town to make their mark. Throughout the weekend, I had the chance to see many of them speak on a number of topics from elderly engagement in the arts to tagging to contemporary outdoor museums.

The glorious Easter weather was well worth the travel. The granite architecture in Aberdeen means the town is spared the dusted look of Edinburgh, where softer stone is prolific. But this graveyard was straight up as mossy as the picture turned out.

Only three years young, NuArt Aberdeen blossomed out of the annual NuArt Festival in Stavanger, Norway. Another industrial city on the sea, Stavanger has been host to this street art festival since 2001. Aberdeen invests substantial funds to entice top name street artists to their city by the sea. The festival has made Aberdeen a bit of a street art Mecca. The official map of murals and paintings number just over 30 but there must be dozens more by lesser known artists.

Another art teacher and I set out to visit the works like a scavenger hunt and it took nearly two days and I still missed quite a few. I got to know the work of HUSH, Dotmaster, Jan Vormann, and Evol, to name a few. To hear more about these murals and the artists who created them, check this out.

This mural, perhaps my favorite, was created by Portuguese artist Add Fuel, a name I found pretty apropos considering Aberdeen’s place in the oil industry.

In front of the work of Helen Bur on Greyfriars House, Gallowgate

On the day I was departing Moscow, I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria with a number of Scottish colleagues. Upon mentioning I was flying to Aberdeen that evening, one of them mentioned the new V&A outpost which had opened in Dundee (if you’re not familiar, the Victoria & Albert Museum is an extremely revered museum in London). Excited not to waste such an opportunity, I hopped a train my first morning in Aberdeen and rode it an hour south to Dundee.

The ride itself was gorgeous, beginning alongside the frigid waters of the North Sea and bobbing in and out of farmland dressed with stone walls. The museum proved impressive in range, hosting a “best of Scottish design” show alongside a show on video games and digital literacy in the age of e-sports (a term I’ve only encountered recently from my students).

Back in Aberdeen, our group spent time at the International School Aberdeen, a lush campus about 15 minutes from downtown featuring modern architecture and top rate educational tools. I can understand why the overseas faculty never leave!

One of the coolest things about my time in Aberdeen was the chance to see one of the huge murals come to life. SMUG’s mural on The Green was sweet enough but thanks to our local chapter member, we had dinner in a cabin in the middle of it all, watching the whole process go down.

Aberdeen proved a charming little town. A little rough around the edges, it’s burgeoning art scene is boosted by start ups like Peacock Visual Arts, a small gallery and extensive print studio. With spots like Books and Beans (which I frequented daily for breakfast), there’s a lot to love about downtown.

With local pubs like Ma Cameron’s (obvi partial) and BrewDog, there are pints for the taking.

Though the festival events weren’t overly attended, the seven of us ate it up. Reinvigorated, I returned to my classroom ready to take on our next printmaking unit – protest posters – and put the inspiration and stencil skills to good use. Up next, I’m awaiting my aunt’s arrival in Moscow tomorrow. A trip to St. Pete’s is planned as well as the promise of more local Moscow sights to share with all of you.