AAGM Numbers Show Aberdeen Turning Up For Culture
Access improves, volunteers step up, sustainability strengthens, and representation grows across services.
Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums have just released their 2024–25 figures. Headline numbers are moving in the right direction. Visits rose to 331,528, up 11,763 on last year. The Art Gallery drove most of that with 222,516 visits, including 32,040 during Spectra. The review also points to steady gains in access, sustainability and learning, built on targeted funding and a strong volunteer base.
When Aberdeen lines up city moments with gallery and museum programmes, people turn up. Tall Ships and Festival of the Sea activity helped lift audiences across venues, echoing the Spectra effect at the Art Gallery. Elsewhere, the Maritime Museum recorded 80,001 visits, Provost Skene’s House 28,258, and the Treasure Hub 753, reflecting its behind-the-scenes role.
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Learning and volunteering
Education and access feel like low-key wins. There were 2,240 pupil visits, supported by a travel fund to help schools reach the Art Gallery. The Archives Search Room at the Town House reopened after a major move, and the McBey reference library is now open on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That nudges Aberdeen’s heritage back into everyday use for researchers, students and anyone tracing family stories.
Volunteers remain central to how the service runs. 179 registered volunteers contributed 5,416.6 hours. That is a lot of patient, behind-the-scenes work that keeps events running, doors open, and collections cared for. It also builds local ownership. When people help shape how stories are told, they bring friends and keep coming back.
Representation in the collection
AAGM acquired 104 new objects and documents, including works that broaden representation in the MacDonald portrait collection. That choice supports more people seeing themselves on the walls. For a city focused on welcoming students, families and newcomers, that sense of recognition matters.
Green Tourism awards went to the Art Gallery, Maritime Museum, Provost Skene’s House and the Treasure Hub. Environmental standards are increasingly part of how the service works day to day. Visitors notice, and schools do too.
Funding and everyday value
Funding remains a mixed picture. £89,336 in grants, including the William Syson Foundation Travel Fund, supported school visits to the Art Gallery. £16,475 from the Friends of AAGM supported new acquisitions, commissions, conservation and events. It is helpful, if not transformative. The value shows in the figures and in small signals of daily use, like 4,250 scones sold.
Cowdray Hall’s centenary and Gray’s School of Art’s 140th anniversary offer clear hooks to tie music, art and education. The lesson from this year is simple. Keep pairing these moments with city life. More late openings, affordable family routes in, open days at the Treasure Hub and continued digital access would deepen the gains. Aberdeen’s cultural infrastructure is working. Keep it public-facing, inclusive and woven into the life of the city.
