Patrick Geddes, ‘The Arts in Relation to Applied Sociology’ drawing on paper, date unknown, courtesy the University of Strathclyde Archives and Special Collections.

Cooper Gallery is delighted to announce a new exhibition Politics of Small Places that forges a unique dialogue between preeminent contemporary artist and Turner Prize nominee Paul Noble and pioneering Scottish urban planner Sir Patrick Geddes. You can see the exhibition between 14 September – 6 October, and join a preview and ‘in-conversation’: Thursday 13 September, 5:30 – 7:30pm.

Launching at a critical moment in Dundee’s cultural and architectural history, the exhibition brings together Noble’s unsettling encyclopaedic depictions of urban blight with Geddes’ principle to ‘think global act local’ that calls for global consciousness and civic participation, asking urgent questions on sustainability, social struggle, and collective effort.

With Dundee fast becoming a destination on the global cultural map, Cooper Gallery invites a counter dialogue to explicate the relationships between architecture, urban planning, sustainability, collective consciousness and contemporary art. As part of Cooper Summer Residency 2018, Noble will engage in a four-week written correspondence with Lorens Holm, Director of Geddes Institute for Urban Research at the University of Dundee. This will culminate in a public in-conversation event at the exhibition preview on 13 September. Featuring Noble, Holm and Louise Anne Reid, a researcher in Sustainable Development and Geography at the University of St Andrews, the event will explore current debates on urbanisation alongside ideas of social and environmental justice. Book your free tickets here.