Meet our new committee members! Aurora Segnan, Events Officer Hi! I’m Aurora and I’ve been working for the past 2+ years for Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust, a small charity in the North West of Glasgow that looks after the historic building of its name and makes arts and heritage accessible for the local community. I’ve been working behind the scenes as admin and volunteer coordinator, I’ve been supporting community events, exhibitions and the heritage programme, and I put together my very first exhibition: ‘STRIKE! Stories of Bryant & May’. I’m an Aberdeen alumna and hold a PGDip in Art ..read more

This years theme: ‘A Little Help from the Sector‘ Do you work, volunteer or study in, around and with museums? Join us this year on Monday 29th of April for our annual Scottish Museums Federation conference at the stunning Linlithgow Burgh Halls for a day of thought-provoking talks, research and discussion. This year, our theme is ‘A Little Help from the Sector’, because we all need a little help sometimes. We are championing collaboration, support and resources in museums, heritage and beyond. Submit your proposal on the theme of collections and conservation, education, learning and outreach ..read more

In July of this year, I travelled to Bristol to attend the biennial conference of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE). My PhD research is on the study of Ancient Egypt in Scotland – its development over time, how it contributed to museum collections and exhibitions, and its impact in popular and academic circles. An aspect I have been looking at recently is the impact of travel to Egypt on Scottish artists, so the ASTENE conference was the ideal platform for highlighting this particular area. Following the Napoleonic campaign and the discovery of the Ros ..read more

I have been working in museums in Scotland for a fair while – beginning in the Hunterian Museum as a student volunteer in the in the late 1980s. My roles have been many and varied, most with ‘curator’ or ‘collections’ in the title, but also exhibitions, operations management, administration, and front-of-house. Author Elinor Clark at a community event in Paisley Fairly early on in my career I became aware of the Scottish Museums Federation – I can’t remember exactly when I joined – possibly as a Museum/Galleries Studies student in St Andrews. I have fond memories of visiting The Open Museum in ..read more

A volunteer carefully examines a 17th century bible Drum Castle, part of the National Trust for Scotland, has a fascinating and significant library of over 4000 books. Thankfully, the castle now has a dedicated team of volunteers who help to care for and catalogue the collection. They meet once a week to discover the secrets hidden between the pages… Coming from a range of backgrounds, from students, to working professionals to retirees, the collections care volunteers methodically work their way along each shelf in the library. Each book is carefully removed, identified, and matched to the li ..read more

Grantown – Group in recreated photographer’s studio. Volunteers from the Alford Heritage Museum recently went on an outing with the aid of the SMF Professional Development Fund. Read on to hear about how it went… On 8 July, a group of four volunteers from Alford Heritage Museum visited two other heritage attractions in northeast Scotland. Two of the group are Trustees whilst the others work in our visitor reception and on the collections. Knockando – tin roof replacing the thatched roof. We chose two very different places to visit for different reasons. Knockando Woolmill in Speyside was firs ..read more

We’ve done a little Q&A session with our new committee members to get to know them a bit better, and find out what attracted them to their roles… Q: What attracted you to a career or interest in museums, and why did you want to be on the SMF committee? Demi A: I loved history as a subject at school and wanted to purse a career in that field, when I was at Uni I started volunteering in museums to see if that was something I would be interested in and just loved it. I wanted to join the SMF committee to engage with other colleagues and feel part of the sector. I’m part of a small tea ..read more

Image of a gold circular badge with relief decoration, called the Akrafo-konmu or ‘soul-washers‘ badge. During the invasion, division and colonisation of Africa during the second half of the 19th century, loot was taken in abundance back to the UK. The Akrafo-konmu is now part of the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, after it was looted during the sacking of Kumasi by British forces in 1874. To find out more about these badges, follow this link to the Royal Collection Trust. Take part in a facilitated Zoom session as part of Museums Galleries Scotland’s national consultation on how museums can co ..read more

Our first event post-Covid was held on the 24th of October at Abertarrf House in Inverness, and has left us ready to get cracking on the future! If you were not able to make it, a recording of the event is available on our Facebook page.  During the event we enjoyed exchanging ideas about how the pandemic affected the heritage sector in the Highlands. Some of the topics we discussed covered the importance of communicating with your larger museum community, caring for your team and improving our presence online.  Looking into the future, we spoke about our hopes for continued recove ..read more

Victoria Robb, Education Manager, National Mining Museum Scotland, give us an insight into how they incorporated maths and outdoor learning into their programming. For Maths Week Scotland 2020, National Mining Museum Scotland (NMMS) created their first outdoor maths trail called Maths for Miners! Image: Graphic courtesy of Blackbird Publishing, from “Maths for Miners” trail Maths and numeracy had played a role in some of our previous learning workshops, although this was never the main focus! For example, we often discuss depth and length of coal tunnels, weight of coal carts, tonnes extracted ..read more