About

A Bit About The Aberdeen Artists Society

The Aberdeen Artists Society was formed in 1827 by ten artists to ‘work for the mutual improvement in painting, and the furtherance of art generally in Aberdeen’ and in order to hold exhibitions. James Giles and Archibald Simpson were the President and Vice President respectively. The society’s first exhibition was held in the same year at Corbyn’s Hall, Adelphi Court, Aberdeen. There followed a period of hiatus after the second exhibition, when the society tried to establish it’s identity within the emergent Scottish arts landscape and to develop a strategy to deliver a regular exhibition. 

On July 7th 1885, Aberdeen Art Gallery opened. The establishment of the gallery was sponsored by three local patrons including John Forbes White, then President of AAS. The gallery opened with the inaugural exhibition of Aberdeen Artists Society Exhibition. 700 works were shown within the exhibition, a quarter of which were attributed to AAS members or local artists, the remainder were supplied on loan from national collections. Over the past two centuries, the Society has re-invented its organisational structure a number of times, yet it has remained fundamentally true to its original aims.

 

From 1981 to 2012 the Society enjoyed sponsorship from Shell UK, which allowed the Society to offer significant prizes as well as bursaries and awards to artists. During this period, Aberdeen Artists initiated a programme of purchasing work from its own annual exhibitions and providing the works for display in Grampian hospitals, a programme that became Grampian Hospital Arts Trust (GHAT).  In 2013 the Society was pleased to team up with Apache North Sea Ltd, who sponsored the Apache Awards, as well as a number of local companies to create a diverse prize fund.

Recently, the society has turned to commercial galleries to augment their regular presence at Aberdeen Art Gallery. The mounting of a major exhibition is a huge task and can only be accomplished with the help of gallery staff, the society’s council and a great many volunteers. 

 

 

 

 

Current Council 

 

The Society has many paid up members and some honorary. It is run by an elected council of volunteers drawn from the membership. There is an up to date constitution.