Aberdeen is holding a month-long festival this month (May) to celebrate the material from which much of it is built – granite.

The programme for the festival was launched by Councillor Irene Cormack on 4 April in the splendid granite surroundings of Aberdeen Art Gallery, Schoolhill.

The event opened on 2 May with a display of modern masonry techniques by Aberdeen company Laing Traditional Masonry and includes presentations from another of the city’s few remaining granite companies, A&J Robertson Granite, on 20 May. Colin Tennant, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Stone Liaison Group, will be talking about the sustainability of stone on 27 May.

The festival is being led by Aberdeen Art Galleries & Museums, and comes in response to a motion made by Councillor Cormack to the City Council's Education, Culture & Sport Committee in November 2009.

She said then: "In the light of the restoration and re-use of Marischal College, the second largest granite building in the world, and in recognition of the central role that the granite industry has played in the city’s economic development and in its cultural identity, that this Council agrees to the production of a report with options on how the Council and its partners can properly acknowledge the key contribution that the use of granite has made to the environment of Aberdeen and the wider North East region."

Aberdeen's unique cityscape has been created over hundreds of years by using granite for buildings, sculptures and monuments, giving the city a powerful sense of place.

With this in mind events have been organised across the city so everyone can celebrate its granite heritage.

At the launch of the festival programme this month, Councillor Cormack said: "I am delighted that this is taking place and would encourage Aberdeen citizens to support the festival. I hope this is the first step towards a greater recognition of granite and its place in our history."

Art Galleries & Museums Curator Jenny Brown added: "I am really excited about the Granite Festival – we have some excellent events lined up for everyone. If the Granite Festival is a big success, we can make it a regular feature of Aberdeen’s cultural life."

Copies of the Granite Festival programme are available from Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums and libraries in the city and throughout Aberdeenshire. They can be downloaded from Art Galleries & Museums website at the address below – click on the address below to go to the site.