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The city of Glasgow , Scotland, has many amenities for a wide range of cultural activities, from curling to opera and from football to art appreciation; it also has a large selection of museums that include those devoted to transport, religion, and modern art. In 2009 Glasgow was awarded the title UNESCO Creative City of Music in recognition of its vibrant live music scene and its distinguished heritage. Glasgow has three major universities, each involved in creative and literary arts, and the city has the largest public reference library in Europe in the form of the Mitchell Library. Scotland's largest newspapers and national television and radio companies are based in the city.
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum houses renowned art work and paintings including many old masters, Dutch, Italian, French Impressionists, etc. and the Scottish Colourists, and Glasgow Boys. [1] The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, of the University of Glasgow, has what is considered to be the best collection of Whistler paintings in the world. [2] The Burrell Collection of international art and antiquities donated to the city by Sir William Burrell is housed in an award-winning museum in the Pollok Country Park. [3] The People's Palace museum in Glasgow Green reflects the history of the city and its people, focusing on the working class of Glasgow. [4] The Riverside Museum on the Clyde focuses on shipping, transport and city life. [5] Glasgow School of Art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh continues its pre-eminence in art, design and architecture, including its Digital Design Studio across the River Clyde in Pacific Quay. [6] The Gallery of Modern Art is on Royal Exchange Square, just off George Square. [7] The Glasgow Print Studio is on Trongate, it provides workshop and gallery space for printmakers with regularly changing exhibitions. [8]
Glasgow's museums and galleries include:
Glasgow has 32 community libraries across the city, run by Glasgow Life. [9]
Most of Scotland's national companies including Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra are based here as is the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is one of Britain's longest established performing conservatoires, and its recently opened Alexander Gibson Opera School is the first purpose built opera school in Britain. The National Piping Centre is an international teaching centre. The city also has a longstanding and lively popular music scene based around venues such as the SECC, the O2 Academy, Barrowlands, Cosmopol and King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. Glasgow is the first city in Britain to be awarded the UNESCO City of Music accolade. Glasgow also has major cinema complexes in the city centre and at locations on the Clyde and at out of town shopping centres.
Glasgow has a number of theatres, including:
Glasgow has over 100 parks, gardens, recreational areas, green spaces and cemeteries across its area. Glasgow City Council manages a great number of these.
Glasgow City Council city and district parks (twenty of the total Glasgow City Council parks):
Glasgow City Council local parks:
As part of Glasgow's cultural renaissance, Glasgow is host to a variety of festivals throughout the year:-
Glasgow has also hosted the National Mòd no less than thirteen times since 1895 [10] in 1895, 1901, 1907, 1911, 1921, 1933, 1938, 1948, 1958, 1967, 1988, 1990 and 2019.
The city was host to the three Great Exhibitions at Kelvingrove Park, in 1888 (International Exhibition), 1901 (Glasgow International Exhibition) and 1911 (Scottish Exhibition, Art and Industry). It later hosted the Empire Exhibition in 1938 and the Industrial exhibits of the Festival of Britain at the Kelvin Hall in 1951. More recently it held the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and was European Capital of Culture in 1990, National City of Sport 1995–1999, UK City of Architecture and Design 1999 and European Capital of Sport 2003. The city hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Glasgow was awarded the title UNESCO City of Music in recognition of its live music scene.
Glasgow has many live music pubs, clubs and venues. Some of the city's main venues include the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, the SECC and King Tut's Wah Wah Hut (where Oasis were spotted and signed by Glaswegian record mogul Alan McGee), the Queen Margaret Union and the Barrowland, a historic ballroom, converted into a live music venue. More recent mid-sized venues include ABC, Stereo, The Old Hairdressers and the Carling Academy, which play host to a similar range of acts. Numerous small venues, cafes and bars play host to the many smaller local and touring bands which regularly play in the city.
Glasgow is also home to a thriving electronic music scene, with a particularly strong reputation for techno and house music. Venues like the Arches and the Sub Club, record labels such as Soma and Chemikal Underground and clubnights such as Optimo have supported this strong underground movement for the past two decades in the city.
The city also boasts a flourishing experimental music scene, and plays home to Alex Neilson and Richard Youngs. Glasgow hosts the long-running Install and Subcurrent annual festivals, which have featured underground artists such as Gustav Metzger and Tony Conrad, as well as reclusive American musician Jandek's first ever live performance. The Soundlab season at Glasgow Concert Halls presents excellent Scottish and international artists; while the Minimal Glasgow season features major names like Steve Reich and Philip Glass alongside up and coming acts.
A known noise rock act from Glasgow in the late nineties was Urusei Yatsura. In recent years, the success of bands such as Chvrches, Franz Ferdinand, Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura and Mogwai has significantly boosted the profile of the Glasgow music scene, prompting Time magazine to liken Glasgow to Detroit during its 1960s Motown heyday. [11]
Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 635,640. The city was made a county of itself in 1893, prior to which it had been in the historic county of Lanarkshire. The city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is governed by Glasgow City Council. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands.
The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology Museum and the Anatomy Museum, which are all located in various buildings on the main campus of the university in the west end of Glasgow.
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. It reopened in 2006 after a three-year refurbishment and since then has been one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. The museum has 22 galleries, housing a range of exhibits, including Renaissance art, taxidermy, and artefacts from ancient Egypt.
Kelvingrove Park is a public park located on the River Kelvin in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, containing the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
The Burrell Collection is a museum in Glasgow, Scotland, managed by Glasgow Museums. It houses the art collection of Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell. The museum reopened on 29 March 2022 with free entry, having been closed for refurbishment since 23 October 2016.
Whiteinch is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated directly north of the River Clyde, between the Partick and Scotstoun areas of the city. Whiteinch was at one stage part of the burgh of Partick, until that burgh's absorption into the expanding city of Glasgow in 1912, and part of the Parish of Govan.
The Kelvin Hall, located on Argyle Street in Glasgow, Scotland, is one of the largest exhibition centres in Britain and now a mixed-use arts and sports venue that opened as an exhibition venue in 1927. It has also been used as a concert hall, home to the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena to 2014, and from 1988 to 2010, Glasgow's Museum of Transport. As part of the economic redevelopment of Greater Glasgow promoted by the Scottish Development Agency and local authorities to enhance the city's tourist infrastructure and to attract further national and international conferences, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre was designed as the Hall's successor for exhibitions and entertainments, built and opened on the nearby Queen's Dock in 1985 with an exhibition area equal in size to the Kelvin Hall but with the benefit of extensive car parks and land for other complementary buildings. The Hall is protected as a category B listed building, and is served by city bus services and by Kelvinhall subway station.
The West End Festival is an annual festival in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland.
Thomas John Honeyman was an art dealer and gallery director, becoming the most acclaimed director of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow.
The Theatre Royal is the oldest theatre in Glasgow and the longest running in Scotland. Located at 282 Hope Street, its front door was originally round the corner in Cowcaddens Street. It currently accommodates 1,541 people and is owned by Scottish Opera. The theatre opened in 1867, adopting the name Theatre Royal two years later. It is also the birthplace of Howard & Wyndham Ltd, owners and managers of theatres in Scotland and England until the 1970s, created by its chairman Baillie Michael Simons in 1895. It was Simons who as a cultural entrepreneur of his day also promoted the building of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Glasgow's International Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901.
Sauchiehall Street is one of the main shopping streets in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland, along with Buchanan Street and Argyle Street.
John Quinton Pringle was a Scottish painter, influenced by Jules Bastien-Lepage and associated with the Glasgow Boys.
The Park District of the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, is an affluent area located around Park Circus, which sits atop Woodlands Hill, beside Kelvingrove Park.
The International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry was the first of 4 international exhibitions held in Glasgow, Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It took place at Kelvingrove Park between May and November 1888. The main aim of the exhibition was to draw international attention to the city's achievements in applied sciences, industry and the arts during the Industrial Revolution. However, it was also hoped the Exhibition would raise enough money for a much-needed museum, art gallery and school of art in the city. The exhibition was opened by the Prince of Wales, as honorary president of the exhibition, on 8 May 1888. It was the greatest exhibition held outside London and the largest ever in Scotland during the 19th century.
The Glasgow International Exhibition was the second of 4 international exhibitions held in Glasgow, Scotland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition took place during a period of half-mourning requested by Edward VII but was still popular and made more than £35000 profit. The exhibition was opened by the King's daughter, the Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife.
The Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls and Tennis Centre is a sports complex located in Glasgow, Scotland. Located on Kelvin Way off Sauchiehall Street and adjacent to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove Park and the Yorkhill and Kelvingrove residential neighbourhoods, it is owned by Glasgow City Council and was a venue for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and has been used for the purpose since at least 1910. In addition to a number of lawn bowls greens, the facility has six artificial grass tennis courts which are available to the public to play for free.
Siobhan Healy is a Scottish artist and designer of glass art and goldsmithing. Her work is held in the collections of The Scottish Parliament Art Collection, Harvard Museum of Natural History/Herbarium, Glasmuseum Lette, Germany, The Heritage Collection, Clackmannanshire Council, UK and the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, UK.
Sandyford is an area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is north of the River Clyde and forms part of the western periphery of the city centre. Formerly the name of a ward under Glasgow Town Council in the first part of the 20th century, it is within a continuous area of fairly dense urban development bordering several other neighbourhoods whose mutual boundaries have blurred over time, and is possibly less well known than all of the places which adjoin it, particularly Anderston and Finnieston.