At This Place was a project developed in partnership between Culture Aberdeen and Look Again at Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University. Taking place between late 2022 and mid-2023, the project reimagined city centre spaces in Aberdeen and tested new approaches to retail and cultural experiences.
The initiative brought together artists, designers, and creative practitioners from Aberdeen and across the wider UK. By placing experimental projects in vacant or underused retail units, At This Place highlighted how culture can transform the everyday experience of the city centre and invited communities to see familiar spaces differently.
The focus was on the Schoolhill and George Street areas of Aberdeen, with a series of exhibitions, pop-up shops, and creative interventions. Each project offered something distinct, from rethinking consumer culture, to reworking waste into new design objects, to exploring the role of friendship and care in the creative process. Collectively, they opened up conversations about how culture can play a central role in shaping the future of Aberdeen’s city centre, supporting cultural tourism, and providing platforms for local talent.
The programme was supported by Aberdeen City Council’s Local Authority Covid Economic Recovery Fund (LACER). Its funding allowed for practical experimentation with cultural uses of vacant shop units at a time when high streets were facing significant challenges. The project demonstrated how creative work can bring new life into urban spaces, drawing people in and connecting them with artists and ideas in unexpected ways.
Projects within At This Place
TV Dinners
An exhibition by artist and performer Susannah Hewlett (April–May 2023). Hewlett’s practice blends live performance, video, comedy, theatre and sound, often playfully unsettling audiences by using humour to expose the stranger and darker aspects of everyday consumerism. TV Dinners brought together highlights from her 15-year career, including character-led performances and televisual works, staged in a temporary gallery on George Street.
rubbing up against the edges of experience
A collaborative exhibition by artists Caitlyn Holly Main and Jake Shepherd (March–April 2023). This was the duo’s first dedicated project together, reflecting on themes of friendship, Scottish folklore, tenderness, and care. Through prints, drawings and installations, the work celebrated the importance of collaboration and support within Aberdeen’s creative community, while exploring the physicality of materials and the significance of place.
Aberdeen Open City
A group exhibition (March 2023) curated by Jon Blackwood and Sally Reaper, showcasing contemporary practices shaped by the city’s changing cultural ecology. Featuring new work by Gray’s School of Art graduates Sofya Tagor, Claire Roberts, Marie-Chantal Hamrock, and Saoirse Horne, the exhibition explored how Aberdeen’s artists are responding to wider social and political changes, from energy transition to the aftermath of the pandemic.
Origin
A design-led project (December 2022–February 2023) created by Gray’s School of Art staff Daniel Sutherland and Ben Durack. Origin transformed locally collected plastic waste into functional products, presented in a pop-up retail space. The project encouraged the public to rethink everyday waste materials, engage in sustainable design, and directly influence which prototypes might be developed into future products.
EDIT
Originally developed in collaboration between Look Again and Deemouth Artist Studios as part of At This Place, EDIT began life as an experimental retail unit designed to connect visitors directly with Aberdeen’s creative community. The shop showcased the work of independent artists and makers, offering a new model for cultural retail in the heart of the city.
What started as a temporary initiative has grown into a lasting success. EDIT has since established a permanent home in the Bon Accord shopping centre, where it continues to thrive as a space for creative retail. Today, it supports more than 40 local designers, makers, and small creative businesses, providing them with a high-profile platform to present and sell their work directly to both residents and visitors to the city.
The shop is more than a retail outlet – it is a space that celebrates the depth and diversity of creativity in Aberdeen and the wider North East. Shoppers can find everything from ceramics, jewellery, textiles, and illustration, to prints, design products, and unique handmade gifts. Each purchase directly supports local talent, making EDIT a vital bridge between creative practitioners and the public.
For Aberdeen, EDIT has become a cultural asset in its own right, helping to animate the Bon Accord shopping centre and offering an alternative to mainstream retail. For the makers it represents, it provides sustainable opportunities to reach new audiences, build customer relationships, and grow their practices. For the city, it adds to a sense of pride and identity, showcasing the creativity that is rooted here. What began as part of At This Place has become a lasting legacy that continues to benefit the cultural economy. You can keep up to date with EDIT’s evolving collections, seasonal showcases, and special events by following them on Instagram.
Through these projects, At This Place demonstrated how empty or underused urban spaces could be reimagined as creative hubs, fostering connections between artists and communities. It offered a model for culture-led regeneration and highlighted the potential of collaborative working across sectors.
While temporary in nature, the project left a lasting impression by showing how Aberdeen’s high streets could host more than just traditional retail. It provided platforms for emerging and established artists, nurtured collaborations, and supported a sense of shared cultural identity in the city.
Find out more via https://lookagainaberdeen.co.uk/atthisplace