About
The University of Dundee's museum service maintains recognised collections of art, science and natural history, and shows them to the public in two free exhibition galleries in the university's Tower Building: the Tower Foyer Gallery on the ground floor and the Lamb Gallery on the first-floor mezzanine. Around ten exhibitions a year are mounted between them, drawing on the university's own holdings and on loans, and both galleries are open to anyone, free of charge, on weekdays.
The Fine Art Collection is the best known element. It began in earnest with a bequest from James Charles Lamb, a former student of University College Dundee, whose gift in 1960 established the university's Fine Art Fund; when he died shortly after the Tower Building opened, the new first-floor exhibition space was named in his honour. The fund allowed sustained purchasing, and the collection is particularly strong in twentieth-century and contemporary Scottish art, alongside works connected with Dundee and with the university's own history.
The university's other recognised collections are of a different character. Dundee's medical school, its long-standing engineering and science departments and the former Dundee Institute of Art and Technology have all left substantial material: historic scientific and medical instruments, teaching models, anatomical and pathological material, zoological and geological specimens, and design and textile holdings reflecting the city's industrial past. Much of this is not permanently on display but appears regularly in the galleries' rotating exhibition programme.
Because the programme changes roughly monthly, no two visits are the same, and the museums' character is closer to a pair of active public galleries than to a fixed-display museum. The university also maintains the separate D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum and the Tayside Medical History Museum, and the collections as a whole are used in teaching, research and public engagement across the institution. Study access to material not currently on display can be arranged with the museum services team, which is worth knowing for anyone with an interest in a specific part of the holdings, since what is visible at any given moment depends entirely on the exhibition then running.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check the current exhibition programme before travelling — the galleries change shows around ten times a year and there is no permanent display to fall back on.
- Opening is weekdays only, but the hours are long: 9.30am to 7pm, which makes an early evening visit possible.
- Both galleries are free and require no booking.
- The Tower Foyer Gallery is at ground level and the Lamb Gallery on the first floor, reached by lift — both are step-free.
- This is a working university building; opening can be affected by holidays and exhibition changeovers.
- Combine the visit with V&A Dundee, the McManus and Discovery Point, all within about ten minutes' walk.
- If you want to see a specific part of the collections not currently exhibited, contact the museum services team to arrange study access.
- There is no dedicated visitor parking on campus; use city centre car parks or arrive by train, as Dundee station is twelve minutes' walk away.
Highlights
The Lamb Gallery
The Lamb Gallery occupies the first-floor mezzanine of the Tower Building and is the university's principal exhibition space. It is named for James Charles Lamb, a former student of University College Dundee whose 1960 bequest created the university's Fine Art Fund and made sustained art purchasing possible for the first time.
He died shortly after the Tower Building opened, and the newly created gallery was named in his memory.
The space now carries the larger share of an exhibition programme running to around ten shows a year across the two galleries.
The Fine Art Collection
The university's Fine Art Collection is strongest in twentieth-century and contemporary Scottish art, built through decades of purchasing supported by the Lamb bequest and augmented by gifts. Alongside the Scottish holdings sit works connected to Dundee itself and to the university's own institutional history, including portraits and commissioned pieces.
Because the collection is shown through a rotating programme rather than a permanent hang, visitors see different parts of it at different times, and the university's exhibition schedule is the practical guide to what is currently accessible.
The Tower Foyer Gallery
The ground-floor Tower Foyer Gallery is the more informal of the two spaces, sitting in the circulation area of a busy university building where it is encountered by students and staff going about their day as much as by visitors coming specifically to see it. Its programme runs alongside the Lamb Gallery's and often carries smaller or more experimental shows, including student and community projects.
Its position makes it one of the more genuinely public university gallery spaces in Scotland, with no threshold to cross and nothing to pay.
Scientific and Medical Instruments
Dundee's medical school and its science and engineering departments have generated a substantial collection of historic instruments, apparatus and teaching equipment over more than a century. Microscopes, surgical and diagnostic instruments, physics and engineering apparatus and laboratory equipment document how science and medicine were actually practised and taught, and they appear regularly in the galleries' exhibition programme.
This material connects directly to Dundee's standing as a medical teaching centre and to the university's origins in the technical and scientific education of an industrial city.
Collections
The University of Dundee's recognised collections span fine art, historic scientific and medical instruments, natural history and design. The Fine Art Collection, developed through the Fine Art Fund established by the 1960 bequest of James Charles Lamb, is strongest in twentieth-century and contemporary Scottish art alongside works relating to Dundee and to the university's own history.
Scientific and medical material reflects the university's medical school and its science and engineering departments, and includes instruments, apparatus and teaching equipment.
Natural history holdings include zoological and geological specimens, complementing the separately housed D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum. Design and textile collections connect to Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and to the city's industrial past. The collections are shown to the public through a changing programme of around ten exhibitions a year in the Tower Foyer and Lamb Galleries.
Explore the diverse collections housed in this museum.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.