9 May 2006

Demarco archive plans on display at Degree Show

One of the major ongoing projects at the University of Dundee is the digitisation of thousands of images held in the archive of Richard Demarco, one of Scotland’s finest art collections.

Visitors to Degree Show 2006 at the university’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) later this month will have the chance to see plans for a building specifically designed to house Demarco’s archive collection.

The building has been designed by fourth year architecture student Ruari Gardiner.

"I kind of stumbled on Richard Demarco and his work but he turned out to be a real inspiration," said Ruari (23), who is from Aberdeen.

"I went and met him and spoke about his work and that helped give me a real feel for the kind of building that would be suitable for housing his collection."

Ruari’s design is for a building in the Port Dundas area of Glasgow, which would not only act as a home for the Demarco archive but also aid the regeneration of the area.

"Port Dundas is quite a fragmented community, even in the physical sense as there are a lot of canals dividing it. A building like this would help draw it together and offer something special at the heart of the community."

Ruari’s design is for a building on a similar scale to that of Dundee Contemporary Arts and hopefully of a similar impact to that of a centre which changed the artistic and physical landscape in Dundee.

Ruari now hopes to attract some high-level support for his design - he has invited Richard Demarco to return to the University which awarded him an honorary doctorate, and come and view the model at Degree Show 2006.

The degree show opens to the public on Saturday 20 May and runs until Saturday 27 May. It is staged within the DJCAD buildings on the University of Dundee campus.

For further information contact:

Hilary McNally
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: 01382 384768
email: h.mcnally@dundee.ac.uk