museums & galleries
The city has a wide range of museums and galleries that cover a range of interests including football, bagpiping, and religion, as well as some of the best collections of art and photography in the world.
QUICKLINKS
THE BURRELL COLLECTION
Set in the serene surroundings of Pollock Country Park, you can now rediscover the Burrell Collection, which reopened in 2022 after a six-year refurbishment.
BASIC INFORMATION
Nearest train/subway
Pollokshaws West
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wHERE IS IT?
In the heart of Pollock Country Park, a few miles southwest of the city centre.
ABOUT
This unusual collection was gifted to Glasgow by shipping magnate and explorer Sir William Burrell in 1944. Burrell included a provision that it must be housed in a park outwith the city, so as not to be affected by air pollution. However, no such site existed until twenty years later, when Glasgow City Council inherited the Pollok Estate. As a result of this, no building existed in which to house the collection. The council ran a competition, eventually won by English architect Gordon Barry Gasson, in collaboration with the first female recipient of the RAIA Award, Australian architect Brit Anderson.
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The L-shaped building is home to one of the largest and most eclectic assortments of artefacts and exhibits, with over 8000 pieces ranging from medieval weaponry to Islamic and Chinese art, as well as masterpieces by renowned French artists such as Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas, and Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne. The collection explores many different facets of creation, from textiles and stained glass windows, back to history to ancient civilisations, with the famous Warwick Vase standing as a centrepiece. The vase, dating back to 2 AD, was unearthed in the ruins of Emperor Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli.
GALLERY
GALLERY
gallery of modern art
The gallery is situated in a townhouse built for Tobacco Lord William Cunninghame in 1778, yet GoMA is one of Glasgow’s newest exhibition spaces, opening in 1996.
BASIC INFORMATION
Nearest train/subway
Queen Street station
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wHERE IS IT?
In the centre of Royal Exchange Square, just off Buchannan Street, a few yards from George Square.
ABOUT
In the past, it has served as a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, a library and the Royal Exchange. For the latter, it was renovated in the mid-19th Century by famous Glasgow architect David Hamilton. The gallery features themed exhibits all year round, as well as housing pieces by famous post-modern artists such as Andy Warhol and David Hockney, and Scottish artists such as John Bellany and Ken Currie. As well as an exhibition space, GoMA is also a learning centre, with regular classes, including a Saturday morning one for families, and free internet access.
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The museum is perhaps most famous for the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington that stands proudly outside.