Gray's School of Art
Gray’s School of Art is an art school in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is part of Robert Gordon University and is one of Scotland’s oldest fine art schools. It ranks among the UK’s top 20 art and design schools and sits on the university’s Garthdee campus.
The school opened on 7 September 1885 and was officially opened on 16 November by the Lord Provost of Aberdeen, James Matthews. It was named after John Gray, a local businessman who funded the school and helped shape the Aberdeen Mechanics Institution, a precursor to the university.
Originally called Gray’s School of Science and Art, it started with 96 day students and 322 evening students and was located on Schoolhill next to the Aberdeen Art Gallery. By the 1960s it moved to Garthdee, next to the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture. In the 1950s, architect Tom Scott Sutherland gifted Garthdee House and its estate to the School of Architecture, and in 1956 the relocated school opened there as the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture.
The current Garthdee building, designed by Michael Shewan, was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s S.R. Crown Hall. It is listed as one of Scotland’s DoCoMoMo Key Scottish Monuments. The campus provides studios for painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, ceramics, jewellery, 3D design, and computer labs, plus life-drawing rooms.
Gray’s offers training in a wide range of fine art and design subjects. All courses begin with a common first year to explore different areas, after which students choose a specialty from the second year onward.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:42 (CET).