Want to Work at Nuart Aberdeen? The People Running It Started There.
Thirteen artists, a poetry theme, and a crew that came up through the ranks.
The three people running this year’s festival, KMG, Ciarán Glöbel, and Martin “Tazzy” Widerlechner, all started out as volunteers. They came in to help, learned the culture from the inside, and gradually took on more. This year they’re producing the whole thing. Knowing that changes the pitch a bit.
The volunteer call for Nuart Aberdeen 2026 is open now and runs until 5 April. Roles include driving, logistics, event support, production work, and helping artists on site. There’s also a new education strand this year, involving school pupils from Aberdeen and the shire contributing their own artwork to the festival.
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This year is a bit different
If you’ve been to Nuart Aberdeen before, this edition takes a different shape. The familiar building-sized murals are still there, but the theme, “Poetry Is In The Streets,” has pushed the festival towards smaller, more text-based work scattered throughout the city centre. Curator Martyn Reed has described the shift as asking more of both the artists and anyone walking past. Text on a wall requires you to stop. That’s a harder ask than a mural that grabs you regardless.
The artist line-up leans heavily Scottish. Of the 13 artists confirmed, the majority have Scottish roots, including KMG, The Rebel Bear, Trackie McLeod, and Robert Montgomery, who was part of the very first Nuart Aberdeen in 2017. His piece on Jopps Lane is still up.
The works will range in scale, from something the size of your hand to something the size of a house. What that ends up looking like across Aberdeen is, Reed admits, still being worked out.
Getting hands-on at a previous Nuart Aberdeen. Volunteers work directly alongside artists throughout the festival week.
What volunteers actually get
“Without volunteers, there’s no festival,” says Honor Cargill, the festival’s volunteer manager. Nobody is left to manage things alone. Roles can span more than one area across the week, and people are paired up rather than dropped in solo. You also get free entry to selected events, meals during shifts, and a reference if you want one.
The volunteer pool has a high return rate. Which, given where some of those volunteers eventually end up, makes a certain kind of sense.
Nuart Aberdeen 2026 runs 22–26 April in Aberdeen city centre. Volunteer applications are open until 5 April. You can find out more and sign up at aberdeeninspired.com. For the artist line-up and this year’s theme, see our earlier coverage: Meet the Artists and Nuart Aberdeen Swaps Big Murals for Poetry.
