covid-19

Kickstarting Glencoe Folk Museum

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Kickstarting Glencoe Folk Museum

In this month’s blog we have invited Catriona, curator at Glencoe Folk Museum, and Connor, a Kickstart Trainee at the museum, to tell us how the Kickstart scheme has been working for them.

The Kickstart Scheme is perfect for a small museum like ours. At a time when we are beginning to work towards our Redevelopment Project, having another pair of hands to take on ongoing work like covering the front desk, cataloguing our collections and carrying out research has been invaluable. My colleague David and I both made our way into the heritage sector through similar schemes, so we are delighted to be able to give someone else the opportunity to gain the experience needed to start their museum journey!  Connor started with us earlier this year has been a major asset to the organisation. 

Hi! My name is Connor and I am the Kickstart Trainee at the Glencoe Folk Museum. As a Kickstart Trainee, I am working at the Museum for 6-months to get a taste of what it is like to work in a Museum and the Heritage sector. I’m very excited and grateful for this opportunity as I love to study history and I plan on working in museums in the future. 

The Kickstart Scheme is a government-funded programme aimed at 16-24 year olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long term unemployment.

One of the reasons why I am enjoying this opportunity so much is because I don’t have a set role in the museum. My role can change day to day as I could be greeting visitors one day and cataloguing our collections the next. I’m thoroughly enjoying this as it is allowing me to get a much greater idea of what it is like to work ‘behind the scenes’ of a museum than if I was simply there to greet and direct visitors. 

I hope to find employment in the heritage sector in the future so this opportunity is giving me invaluable experience and a perspective that I wouldn’t have been able to find anywhere else. I still have a long way to go but these 6 months at Glencoe Folk Museum will set the wheels in motion for me.

My favourite aspect of history is that of 19th and 20th Century military history; everything from the uniforms to the kit and weapons. I have a fair amount of knowledge in regards to military equipment and items from that time but what I have the most knowledge in is firearms from that time. That is why I was thoroughly excited to have the opportunity to research and identify old, obsolete firearms from the 1850’s-90’s and a de-activated one from the Second World War that are in our collection. This is one of the best pieces of experience that I have gotten to date as this is the type of history and museum work that I love and would like to work in once I have the necessary qualifications.

Once I have completed my placement at the Museum, my plan is to join the Royal Navy as my main career path. As I have said, I’ve always had an obsession with the military and since I have grown up around boats and a nautical lifestyle, the Navy was the clear choice for me. One of the biggest reasons that I have chosen the Navy as my main career path is due to the education opportunities that are available. When I was in school, I wasn’t a very academic student as I preferred hands on learning to studying for hours on end. This led to me not getting the qualifications that I was hoping for and denied me the ability to enter University straight out of High School. The Navy allows you to study for a degree alongside your military service so I plan to study for a History degree during my service career.

Once I have left the Navy and gained my Degree, I plan to work in military oriented museums such as the Royal Armouries in Leeds, the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and The Tank Museum at Bovington. These particular Museums stand out to me as they often incorporate Re-enactment and Living History events into their displays and this is an aspect of the heritage sector that I think is an incredible idea and is one that I intend to take part in and enjoy.

All in all, I am beyond excited to be working at the Museum and once again I am so grateful to Catriona and David for giving me this opportunity that will give me a taste of, hopefully, what my career will look like in years to come.

Highland Threads…Many a Mickle Maks a Muckle

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Dan helping to mount swimming costume from the Highland Museum of Childhood with the George Bain jumper in the foreground

This week Dan Cottam, chair of MHH and manager at Grantown Museum, tells how a small idea led to the development of new projects in a pandemic – both for his own museum and for MHH in the form of Highland Threads.

Over the past couple of years, we (the exceedingly small team at Grantown Museum) have been focussing our work on our collection; catching up on an ever-growing backlog of cataloguing, beginning the process of digitisation and generally sorting and tidying our store which has been sadly neglected in the previous few years when we have been prioritising more ‘front of house’ activity. A chance conversation, about what I now forget, led to me directing a volunteer to have an explore through our costumes which lie neatly packed away in acid free tissue paper, in archival grade boxes (thanks to a previous funded project) but are seldom, if ever, looked at. Many a happy, subsequent hour was spent, alone in the store by our fascinated volunteer, admiring an eclectic mix of Victorian dresses, military uniform, baby clothes, underwear, arisaids, lace shawls, muffs and fox-headed stoles. 

‘To save double handling them,’ I asked her, with a cunning plan coming to mind, ‘….as you go through them, can you take measurements, do a rough condition check, photograph them and compile a spreadsheet of data ready to go onto the digital catalogue?’   (not too much to ask of a dedicated volunteer is it?)

Revisiting this forgotten, yet comparatively organised corner of our store made me wonder about exhibiting some of our costume, and quickly remember the barriers and challenges to doing this. We don’t have many mannequins, costumes are vulnerable to environmental conditions and moreover, while the clothes are nice to look at, they mostly don’t have contextual information or provenance attached from which to make a good story worthy of an interesting exhibition. 

I also thought – ‘I wonder what other costume highland museums have in their collections?’

 So, I found myself in the new style meeting, me at my kitchen table and 12 other people crammed into my laptop, asking my colleagues from the highland museum sector – “ do any of you lot have any interesting costume in your collections? And the rest, as they say, is (literally) history!

That fateful meeting from which Highlands Threads was born and would grow arms and legs was a heritage café, a series of informal meetings organised by Museums and Heritage Highland for the people who run Highland museums at the time when we suddenly all found ourselves cloistered at home running closed museums. They were set up to respond to the isolation, intrepidation and confusion that we all felt in the early days of lockdown (which many of us are still feeling a year later) and while it felt a bit weird to begin with, has proven to be a hugely valuable and engaging fortnightly catch up.  Curiously, I feel that I have got to know my peers in the sector better through this remote medium than at the many ‘old style’, quarterly sector gatherings in Inverness  I have attended where we only really got to chat informally during coffee breaks and lunch. A simple device, that was available to us before (although who’d even heard of zoom before March last year?) has proved revolutionary in many ways, not least in making collaborative working across a geographically disparate group of people considerably easier, more equitable and far less time consuming.  I’m very much looking forward to being in a room full of people again, it will happen one day, but I believe that we are now ,far better equipped to create more wonderful collaborative projects, using ever more clever technologies as the collective energies, skills and knowledge of Highland museums prove the idiom that many a mickle maks a muckle.

 Thanks to Museums Galleries Scotland and that dedicated volunteer, Grantown’s costumes collection can be found here: 
Search object results on eHive

 And Grantown Museum’s new  Adventures in Costume – grown up dressing up can be found here:
adventures in costume – Grantown Museum  

Launching 1 April 2021, Highland Threads exhibition will be found at www.highlandthreads.co.uk, but until then you keep up to date with progress here (on the MHH site) and across social media using #HighlandThreads. Book tickets for the launch here.

Our partner museums are: Glencoe Museum, Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, Gairloch Museum, Ullapool Museum, Grantown Museum, West Highland Museum, Highland Museum of Childhood, Castlehill Heritage Centre, Tain through Time, Wick Heritage Museum, Highland Folk Museum, Groam House Museum, Strathnaver Museum and Dornoch Historylinks.

Highland Threads…Photographer on the move

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Jim Dunn photographing a gansey from Wick Heritage Centre

As part of the Highland Threads project, Museums and Heritage Highland offered each participating museum conservation expertise, professional photography and promotion. Many smaller museums struggle to access these services, so contracting sector professionals to work across the project and individually with each participating museum is affordable and proves excellent value for our members. For this third blog in our series Jim Dunn, professional museum photographer, tells of his travels across the Highlands during a pandemic to capture all the beautiful costumes on camera for the online exhibition.

One of the delights for me working on the Highlands Threads project has been how organised each of the museums I visited have been. The West Highland Museum had even arranged with the traffic warden for me to be allowed to park in the pedestrian area outside the front door of their building, a trivial thing you might think, but when your car is bulging at the seams with all the paraphernalia required to set up a temporary studio for photography and video, small things like that bring a smile to my face. 

Helen Avenell takes credit for arranging all my visits, the constantly changing situation due to Covid meant that access dates had to be moved or cancelled and as I type, we wait with bated breath hoping lockdown will allow us access to one final piece of costume – talk about drama! 

Every visit that could be arranged went very smoothly. I was welcomed by staff or volunteers, safety precautions related to Covid were discussed and implemented where required, I was then shown to a space that in every case was suitable for me to set up my background and lights – perfect!  

Talking of backgrounds, at an early stage of the project it was decided that a black background would be used for all the photography and video. Not a big challenge I thought, lots of light coloured outfits, maybe a couple of military uniforms that might be a bit tricker to light against the black. But no, a few wags thought it might be amusing to make things more interesting for me and give me more of a challenge! “lets look out that funeral dress, yes the ‘black’ one” – “what about a nice pullover, yes the one with the great story, the ‘navy blue’ one… “. 

Photographing a Fisherman’s Gansey at Wick Heritage Centre

But all joking aside I do like a challenge and in the end I was pleased how all the outfits turned out, whether dark or light in tone.  

Another person whose work made my job infinitely easier was conservator Rachael Thomas. I often arrived at a venue a day or two after Rachael to find a beautifully dressed mannequin ready for photography or that could be placed on my turntable for the 360deg videos. 

This has been an interesting project for me, not just the logistics and the disparate venues, but the beautiful costumes and in particular meeting so many dedicated staff and enthusiastic volunteers. 

Launching 1 April 2021, Highland Threads exhibition will be found at www.highlandthreads.co.uk, but until then you keep up to date with progress here (on the MHH site) and across social media using #HighlandThreads.

Our partner museums are: Glencoe Museum, Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, Gairloch Museum, Ullapool Museum, Grantown Museum, West Highland Museum, Highland Museum of Childhood, Castlehill Heritage Centre, Tain through Time, Wick Heritage Museum, Highland Folk Museum, Groam House Museum, Strathnaver Museum and Dornoch Historylinks.

Elgin Museum – A year in review

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Elgin Museum – A year in review

It’s been a funny old year for us at Elgin Museum (as it has for everyone!). For probably the first time since we opened in 1843, this year Elgin Museum has not been open to visitors.

After a typically busy winter period 2019-20, all of our volunteers and our 3 P/T members of staff had to abandon ship in early March leaving the building in a state comparable to the Mary Celeste (I’d like to say without the water, but sadly we have an ongoing issue of a leaky roof!). Two of our staff were put on furlough, with our Education & Outreach Officer working from home and continuing to deliver activities for our younger audience, albeit online instead of in person. An Emergency Executive Committee of 4 of our Board Members was assembled, and this team has worked tirelessly throughout the year dealing with the day-to-day issues faced by a Museum as well as the various difficulties arising from the COVID-19 situation.

Our Education and Outreach Officer left us in August to take up a teacher training offer – seeing the writing on the wall for museum sector employment? However, thanks to some dedicated volunteers we have been able to carry on offering various children’s activities through our website and social media channels. Our remaining 2 P/T members of staff returned to work in October, following a detailed risk assessment of the building and the implementation of various mitigation measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the Museum. And from mid-November, we began to welcome a small number of Volunteers back to the Museum to assist with an Inventory Project – though it’s quite a different place to work in now than when they left back in March.

Our biggest challenge this year has been having to switch our focus to digital content, albeit with the heavy-hearted awareness that this may exclude some of our regular audience. However, we have been delighted to welcome a new audience who before 2020 were not aware of, nor able to visit, Elgin Museum.

Moving to online activities and events has been a big shift, but our volunteers have risen to the challenge. Our social media channels (see links at end) continue to go from strength to strength; we’ve added a wide variety of family-friendly activities  to our website so people can “Museum From Home”; we launched our blog “Museum Musings”, featuring short pieces written by our volunteers; creating an online jigsaw page ; and we started a regular “cheery update”  to be sent out by email to all of our volunteers, Moray Society members, and other friends of the Museum.



We’ve also expanded our YouTube Channel with “virtual” tours of some of our exhibitions, our family-friendly craft series “Elgin Museum Makes”, and we’ve recently begun our traditional Winter Lecture Series online and in a new format. “Elgin Museum: In Conversation” replaces our usual lecture programme, and instead sees us talking with Friends of the Museum to gain insight on their life, career and connections with Moray and Elgin Museum. Our first episode featured Neil Curtis, Head of Museums and Special Collection at the University of Aberdeen – and who could have guessed at Neil’s secret passion for plumbing? Our next interviewees are John Borland, president of the Pictish Arts Society (and formerly Measured Survey Manager at HES), followed by Craig Stanford, Archaeology and World Heritage Officer at HES (formerly the NTS St Kilda Archaeologist). Subscribe to our YouTube Channel so you don’t miss our next Conversations!

Another first has been hosting our now annual Friends of Elgin Museum Art Exhibition online. The exhibition features photography, oil, acrylic and watercolour paintings, textile art, jewellery and relief prints. All of the items in the exhibition are available to purchase with a percentage of sales donated to both Elgin Museum and the NHS. There’s no denying it has been a huge amount of work (for the artists whose works feature in the exhibition, and for the volunteer who created the online exhibition!), but so far we have sold & shipped pieces to Nottingham, Dublin and Iowa, and it’s great that we’ve managed to reach an even broader audience than usual! The exhibition will continue on into the New Year, so there is still time explore and enjoy the wonderful arts and crafts of our very talented Volunteers and Moray Society Members from the comfort of your own home!

What next for Elgin Museum? Progress with our previous aspirations has slowed down with COVID-19 priorities, but we still aim to attract funding for a major buildings project, incorporating essential repairs with repurposing an empty retail property in our ownership and also to reinstate a manager/curator post. For now, we’ll “keep on keeping on”, as we wait to see how life will change in 2021. We’ll look towards when (and how) it might be possible for us to once again open our doors to visitors. We look forward to rescheduling our programme of events, originally planned as part of the Scottish Government’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020 (now rebranded 2020/21) including our cancelled Fossil Finders Weekend and the new Elginerpeton fossil display.

In the meantime, we’ll continue expanding our digital presence with new content, encouraging people to visit Elgin Museum From Home. If you haven’t done so already, please look us up online or on social media (see links below) – and we look forward with anticipation to being able to welcome you in person to Elgin Museum.
Claire Herbert
Elgin Museum Volunteer, Vice-President of The Moray Society
www.elginmuseum.org.uk   
https://twitter.com/ElginMuseum
https://www.facebook.com/ElginMuseumMoray/
https://www.instagram.com/elginmuseum/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqVYIHX1wwQUPOcJdVljb7g

Historylinks – the journey to reopening and beyond!

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Historylinks – the journey to reopening and beyond!

When COVID-19 struck, Historylinks Museum was already in the process of preparing to open for the 2020 season. All was suddenly on hold and our Curator and Museum Assistant worked from home before eventually being put on Furlough. During this time the Trustees and Museum Committee began the task of altering the way the museum worked in terms of its digital output. It felt really important to make sure that the local community and potential visitors still had access to the heritage, but in a different way. Funding was granted from MGS to update and enhance our popular Image Archive and make it even more user friendly and accessible. It also enabled us to set up an online ticketing service and pre booked museum tours via our website for when we eventually reopened. We managed to engage more people with our Facebook Page. The local community have been very active in commenting on posts and sharing memories jogged by the images. It has also been possible to set up a digital platform that has enabled us to share film clips from our Archive easily. 

By the beginning of July, it was clear that the Scottish Government was going to allow museums to reopen and so it was time for the Historylinks team to make a decision. To reopen or stay closed? It was not a decision that was taken lightly, but consultation with staff and volunteers revealed that everyone wanted to take steps to open the doors of the Museum once again. A few volunteers have not able to return for the time being because they are still shielding but all were supportive of the plan to reopen. Museum staff were back at work on the 8th July and working towards a reopening date of 18th July.

Another grant from MGS allowed us to buy the appropriate equipment such as PPE, hand sanitiser and other items we needed in order to reopen safely.

The staff and committee members then worked together to create as safe a space as possible in order to welcome back visitors. The first thing in place was a Perspex screen at reception and adequate PPE for all staff and volunteers.

With all this in mind we created our ‘7 steps to safety’. The steps are displayed outside the building and again in reception so that people can read and take in the information before entering the museum. A short film about what to expect in terms of safety measures when visiting will be up on our website soon.

One of the most important points in the 7 steps is the requirement for visitors to wear a face covering and sanitise their hands on entering the building. We have automatic hand sanitiser stations on entry and around the building with paper towels and bin provided.

The reception and retail area here at Historylinks can form a bottleneck for visitors because as well as the way in, it is the way out! The answer to this problem is a traffic light system on entry. This means that our staff and volunteers are in complete control of the flow of visitors. They are able to work the traffic lights remotely from the counter to allow only one party of people at reception at a time. This takes the pressure off the volunteer and allows them time to record track and trace details, fill in Gift Aid forms and explain the one-way system around the museum.

Some things have had to change more significantly. We decided to implement a ‘no touch’ policy around the building in order to minimise any cross infection. Our interactive displays were removed and the children’s toys put away into storage. The addition of polite reminders not to touch the glass cases or exhibits ensures that people are aware of our policy as they walk around.

Having to close the children’s room was sad for us as we love having youngsters in the museum. So, instead of toys in the children’s room they have a fantastic animated film to watch made by local children about Dornoch’s mythical fairy bridge ‘The Gizzen Brigs’. In addition to this, they can see the amazing masks created by our Young Curator’s for their Halloween walk last October. Plus, they can enjoy our story labyrinth in the grounds of the museum.

The addition of a new outdoor exhibition called ‘Domestic Life’ featuring objects from the 19th and early 20th Centuries means that we have enhanced our exterior displays, giving visitors even more to enjoy outside.

Despite the restrictions in the museum we have gone ahead with our new exhibition of Katherine Gray’s dress from 1710 and the display of our East Sutherland Longhouse project featuring a scale model of a pre-clearance settlement. 

Since reopening we have had a steady stream of visitors. Everyone so far has been compliant with our new rules. Occasionally we might have to prompt someone to use the hand sanitiser on entry but this has not caused a problem. Numbers are running at about 60% of the same time last year.  

Visitors have commented that they feel the museum is well organised and volunteers have said that they feel safe with the new safety measures in place. The most difficult thing is having to turn people away when we are at capacity. Especially if it is raining! We do try to encourage people to come back and can generally estimate when we will have room for them.

We do keep a stock of disposable facemasks for people who have lost for forgotten to bring their own.

The main thing we have learned is not to rush entry to the museum. People are always eager to get into the museum but we do have to take quite a lot of information, especially if visitors are Gift Aiding their entrance fee. Taking time to make sure that all the information is accurate is imperative for track and trace and our traffic light system has been very valuable in allowing that to happen.

Our opening times have changed slightly to 10.30am – 4pm but we are still open 7 days a week.

www.historylinks.org.uk

www.historylinksarchive.org.uk 

Highland Museum Re-opening Plans

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Highland Museum Re-opening Plans

Planning a trip to the Highlands and wondering if your favourite museum is open? Here is a comprehensive list that will let you know what their plans are, ways you can support them from afar and/or how to contact them to find out more. You can also check our map page to find out where they are – https://museumsandheritagehighland.org.uk/map

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**MUSEUMS THAT ARE OPEN NOW OR OPENING SOON**

Glencoe Museum

Museum of the Isles, Armadale Castle, Skye

  • NOW OPEN (reopened 6th August)
  • Until 18 October the museum will be open Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 4pm.
  • Entry to the museum will be via timed ticket, purchased at the main ticket office. A one way system has been introduced with floor markers to maintain social distancing and hand sanitiser/handwashing facilities are available at entrance and exit. They are encouraging visitors to wear face coverings and are collecting visitor details to support NHS Scotland’s Test and Protect service as per Scottish Government guidance. Face coverings are required in our shop areas.
  • Audio guides will not be available at this time and the library is currently closed
  • All details and any changes to the above info will updated via our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Gairloch Museum

Ullapool Museum

  • NOW OPEN (reopened 1st August)
  • Opening Times will be – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, 11-4, Saturday 10-5.
  • Customer details will be taken; 10 people Max inside the museum at one time; Masks to be Worn; One way system; Films shown on the hour; New Outdoor History Treasure Trail (both Adults and Children)
  • Can’t visit this year? Donate! Ullapool Museum Giving Fund – paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/charity/3920689
  • Website www.ullapoolmuseum.co.uk
  • You Tube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ullapool+museum
  • Social media links – facebook, @ullapoolmuseum | instagram, @ullapoolmuseum | Twitter, @Ullapoolmuseum | TikTok, @Ullapoolmuseum

Historylinks, Dornoch

  • NOW OPEN! (did so, on 18th July)
  • Open 7 days a week from 10.30am to 4pm. 
  • Visitors can just pay at reception or prepay online via their website or book exclusive use of the museum after hours for £30 for a group of up to 8 people. www.historylinks.org.uk
  • They have a traffic light system in place and a limit to 10 people in the museum at a time. All visitors are asked to wear a face covering if their health permits and to sanitise their hands on entry. There is also a sanitising station half way around the museum. There is a one way system in place and people are asked not to touch anything.
  • They have some new exhibits including an outdoor display of domestic object from the late 19th, early 20th century, an 18th Century dress and a display about their latest community project funded by HLF of a preclearance site at Dalnamain, Dornoch. The display features a scale model of the settlement c1800 made by a Historylinks volunteer and the Young Curators.
  • Their Young Curators have also created an exhibition of masks that they made for a Halloween walk last year. Each mask depicts a character from Dornoch’s history and they have written the interpretation in their own words.
  • They also have 4 films for visitors to watch and a brand new children’s quiz.
  • Keep up to speed via their websites and facebook, www.historylinks.org.uk or www.historylinksarchive.org.uk or https://www.facebook.com/HistorylinksMuseum/

Tain District Museum and Clan Ross Centre

Tarbat Discovery Centre, Portmahomack

NOW OPEN for pre-booked visits – to book a slot and find out more about your visit, go to their website – https://www.tarbat-discovery.co.uk/visitor-information You can also make a donation to support them there if you can’t visit this year.

West Highland Museum, Fort William

  • Opening Friday 4th September
  • Open: Tuesday to Friday 10am to 2pm
  • To book, please email: info@westhighlandmuseum.org.uk or telephone: 01397 702169 or 07985 251335 between 9am and 4pm (Monday – Friday)
  • Require face coverings, following of a one way system, no-touch policy, and will be taking customer details 
  • If you can’t visit this year, you can still support them: Website has a donations button, see below.
  • Follow their FB page to find out more about their digital projects and their Jacobite digital heritage trail.
  • http://www.westhighlandmuseum.org.uk/
  • https://www.facebook.com/WestHighlandMuseum/
  • Twitter: @WestHighMuseum

Timespan, Helmsdale

  • NOW Open
  • Open Monday – Sunday 10zm – 5pm
  • Please note, the museum and cafe capacity have been reduced, to ensure social distancing. You can book your slot in advance by contacting them on 01431 821327 | enquiries@timespan.org.uk
  • Please see our new reopening visitor guidelines to keep you covid-Secure and their community, staff and team safe.
  • Their latest online exhibition Real Rights explores land use and ownership, colonial history and climate change in the Iron Age, during the Highland Clearances and at the height of the herring fishing boom at Helmsdale.

Cromarty Courthouse Museum

  • Open on Saturdays and Sundays during August and September from 12am until 4pm. Admission is free.
  • Staff and volunteers will be on hand to advise you on your route through the Courthouse and they will ask all visitors to use the hand sanitiser provided, wear a suitable face covering and maintain social distancing. 
  • More details on their website – http://www.cromarty-courthouse.org.uk/ or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/CromartyCourthouseMuseum/ 

Groam House Museum, Rosemarkie

  • NOW OPEN
  • Opening times: Thursday to Sunday from 1:30 – 4.15pm
  • Booking is essential, only 1 group in at a time,  maximum of 6 people in the group,  half an hour slots. You can book online at their website, www.groamhouse.org.uk or by phone at 07799 663984. 
  • Face coverings will be required.  Guided tour will be offered.
  • Even if you can’t visit this year, you can still engage in their work and support the museum. Ways to donate and see the work they are doing can be found on their website.
  • Their exhibition this year is ‘Book of Kells; Mysteries Revealed’ which is being put together in conjunction with Thomas Keyes.  
  • Web site: www.groamhouse.org.uk Facebook: GroamHouse Twitter: Twitter @ Groamhouse

Highland Museum of Childhood, Strathpeffer

NOW OPEN. times vary and booking is preferred so please call 01997 421031 or e-mail info@highlandmuseumofchildhood.org.uk when planning your visit. Also check their website. highlandmuseumofchildhood.org.uk 

Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore

  • NOW OPEN ( opened 29th July)
  • Opening times – Wed – Sunday 10.30 – 4
  • Booking system to be made public on Monday 27th – https://www.highlifehighland.com/highlandfolkmuseum/
  • Face coverings required in the toilets and shop
  • Donations link on booking system and on website

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery

The Highlanders Museum, Fort George

Will be reopening on 11th September! More details to follow. Check their facebook page for updates – https://www.facebook.com/thehighlandersmuseum 

Mallaig Heritage Centre

NOW OPEN!
Follow them on facebook https://www.facebook.com/mallaigheritage/
Visit the website for latest info http://www.mallaigheritage.org.uk/

NTS sites including Culloden Battlefield

  • Culloden is NOW OPEN (reopened 1st August)
  • They will be open 10 to 4 Wednesday – Sunday and are asking people to book online to come into the exhibition.  https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/culloden/events
  • Brodie Castle, Inverewe gardens, Glencoe and Glenfinnan will be opening shortly. Check back for more details.
  • Abertaff House and Hugh Miller’s Cottage are staying closed for now

Russian Arctic Convoy Museum, Loch Ewe

  • Opening on a limited basis from Wednesday 12th August, Wednesday’s through to Saturday, until 31st October, 2020.
  • All visitors should pre-book a visit slot. Please contact the museum on 01445 731 137 or via e-mail at exhibition@theracmproject.org giving your name, phone no. & size of party.
  • Visits are limited to a maximum period of 1½ hours, beginning at either 10.00, 12.00 or 14.00
  • Entry fees remain the same as 2019 (adults £4, 12 to 18 £3). Payment preferably by contactless. Due to the closure since April, and the additional costs incurred in now opening with COVID-19 measures in place, any donations will be gratefully received.
  • Social distancing should be adhered to at all times during your visit. Face masks will be mandatory throughout the visit. If you do not have your own mask these will be available at reception at cost price. Please use the hand sanitizer provided at time of entry and during the visit.
  • Visit the website here – https://racmp.co.uk/

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**MUSEUMS STAYING CLOSED OR STILL DECIDING**

Nairn Museum

  • Staying Closed for the season
  • Currently working on a project titled – ‘Retail Therapy: Shops and Businesses in the Historic Market Town of Nairn’ which will involve a mixture of volunteers and locals. The aim is to gather memories, stories and photographs of Nairn shops and businesses to add to their archive, and they hope to have an exhibition on this next season.
  • Video tours of their exhibition spaces and current exhibition ‘A Woman’s Place: Prominent Women from the History of Nairn’ are being worked on and will be posted on social media.
  • Facebook link : https://www.facebook.com
  • Website link is: http://www.nairnmuseum.co.uk/ and you can also DONATE via the website to show your support!

Glenfinnan Station Museum – Not sure of plans yet. Call ahead – 01397 722295

Strathnaver Museum, Bettyhill

Are not reopening this season. You can still support them and engage with their work by visiting their website – www.strathnavermuseum.org.uk 

Wick Heritage Museum

Laidhay Croft Museum – Not opening – visit their website http://laidhay.co.uk/

Dunbeath Heritage Museum – Not currently open – follow their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DunbeathHM/

Brora Heritage Centre – Not sure of plans. Check their Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/broraheritage/ 

Invergordon Museum – Are not opening this season – keep up to date on their news via their website http://www.invergordonmuseum.co.uk/

Grantown Museum – are still deciding. Check their website https://www.grantownmuseum.co.uk/

Elgin Museum

Re-opening Gairloch Museum – A familiar journey

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Re-opening Gairloch Museum – A familiar journey

Almost exactly one year ago, staff and volunteers at Gairloch Museum were putting the final touches to their new museum before its official opening. Scroll forward a year and the picture is a similar one.  After a very successful first nine months, during which it welcomed more than 10,000 visitors, the museum was forced to close for almost four months due to coronavirus.  Staff were furloughed and only returned to work at the beginning of July, after the Scottish Government announced its accelerated timetable for restarting tourism.  Since then it has been all hands on deck to get the museum open.  It has taken three weeks but we are almost there.

The first stage of the process was to set up a task force for reopening.  This has been led by Curator Karen Buchanan and includes front of house staff and volunteers with responsibility for retail and maintenance.  A risk assessment identified that the museum could reopen subject to some changes, the majority of which were in the areas of ticketing and cleaning.  It was also necessary to review display areas taking into consideration the risk of spreading Covid-19 through touch.

In order to reduce contact between visitors, it was decided to assign groups of visitors (e.g. families or couples) to slots and to introduce a one-way system for their circulation.  The display areas can accommodate a maximum of one group in each of the five galleries at any one time.  Using this system, groups should not come into contact with one another other than at pinch points such as the entrance and staircase.  Here barriers and passing places have been used to separate two directional traffic.  Consideration was also given to how to ensure only one group is using the toilet and shop at a time.

It was decided to use the Art Fund’s ‘Art Tickets’ booking facility for advance booking of slots.  This option was chosen as it is free for museums to use, and was a system we had already considered being involved with.  Art Fund have been overwhelmed with new users of Art Tickets, but have done a fantastic job getting us onto the system quickly and signing us up for training webinars.  As we open, we will be taking telephone and email bookings, but hope to transition soon to Art Tickets when we are more confident in using it. We will try to accommodate those who have not pre-booked and turn up on spec and they will need to supply the details required for Test and Protect.  From 9-10am we will only allow 2 groups in and reserve these slots for members and vulnerable people.

We have gone for a two prong approach as regards touching objects. We have signed just about everything.  Either it is OK to touch a display (this applies to interactives), or it is not (e.g. open display objects).  We have made it clear that touching interactives is at visitors’ own risk, and provided sanitizing wipes, hand sanitizer and bins next to them.  We feel that the signage we have used is user friendly and well designed in communicating the rationale to the visitors.  In one area where there are a lot of open display objects, barriers have been placed in front of the displays and new labels attached to the barriers.

We will not be able to allow visitors to use the film theatre in the museum. This is a great shame, as our film is so popular.  But it is 25 minutes long and the room it is shown in is poorly ventilated.  We have obtained permission from the film maker to publish clips from the film on Vimeo and we aim to do this, though it is unlikely to be achieved before we reopen.  We will also produce a large poster to go into the doorway of the film theatre that will advertise the film and have QR codes linking to the Vimeo clips.  We have also considered using QR clips to link to an area on our website which would house the sound clips from our listening posts.  This will take longer to produce and we will work on it once we are open.

Quite a few of our front of house volunteers have chosen not to return to help out at the museum for the time being.  However, we have managed to get enough volunteers to open 4 days a week 9-5.  In fact, it has been a good opportunity to recruit and train new volunteers.  We will have one volunteer on the desk and one upstairs stewarding groups.  Our FOH supervisor will meet and greet.  

One of the significant hurdles to reopening was getting hold of the materials we needed such as barriers and hand sanitiser dispensers.  We eventually got the latter after about a 4 week wait but one of our volunteers eventually had to go to Inverness to pick it up.  Barriers could not be obtained in time so they have been borrowed from a local contractor in the meantime.  We have installed a wall mounted or free standing hand sanitiser in every gallery, at the entrance, in the stairwell and outside the toilets. We have also placed one on the way into the shop and are grappling with instructions to visitors on touching shop produce.

It has been time consuming producing the information that we need to get out to visitors in its various formats and for different distribution channels.  We have had to change our opening hours on all the platforms that people use (e.g. Google Business, Visit Scotland etc.) as well as our own website.  We have dedicated a special page on our website to provide advance information for visitors and have also tried to get this out through social media.  We managed to recruit a volunteer to produce a film for us to guide visitors through the new systems in the museum.  This required storyboarding and recruiting people to take part in the film.  

With hopefully everything in place now, we are looking forward to reopening and to seeing how visitors behave in the museum under these changed circumstances.  We are well aware that we need to be flexible and respond to visitor feedback.  We will use our museum stewards to assess the effectiveness of the measures we have put in place and to feed back to us.  Wish us luck!

Find out about opening times and how to book here – https://www.gairlochmuseum.org/

COVID-19 and a Volunteer Run Museum

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drawing of external image of wick museum

We are delighted to welcome Ian Leith, Chair of Wick Heritage Museum, as our guest blogger for this month, writing about the challenges being faced as a volunteer run museum in the midst of a pandemic.

Background

The Wick Society is wholly led and run by Volunteers. The Board of Trustees are all volunteers and each of our services are delivered through a bank of skilled, committed and dedicated volunteers. 

The Wick Society has responsibility for the Wick Heritage Museum, the Johnston Photographic Collection, Wick Society Boats and our oral history project, Wick Voices. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government restrictions the Board, in conjunction, with the volunteers, decided NOT to open Wick Heritage Museum this year, nor has it been possible to launch our flagship, the Isabella Fortuna. 

However, the Johnston Photographic Collection and Wick Voices are both online resources and continue to be available.

We are also making use of our websites, social media and more recently YouTube channel. This has allowed a certain public presence to be maintained. 

Now, with restrictions being slowly eased and a determination on the part of many to return to a normal situation, guidelines are being issued for museums and other visitor attractions to consider re-opening. The challenges facing the Wick Heritage Museum in terms of social distancing, PPE and hygiene were considered by The Wick Society Board on 25th June 2020 with the decision taken to NOT open during the 2020 Season.

The following considerations and discussions were used to come to the decision.

Consultations and Discussions

A number of virtual meetings and forums have been and continue to be attended. These give an indication of the universal challenges and opportunities that the Wick Society must consider. 

Many museums both nationally and regionally are preparing to open at some point over the next few months. Some, depending on their layout will find it relatively easy to implement the necessary controls and restrictions. Others are looking at alternative approaches to their layouts and/or offerings. 

One of the major differences between the Wick Heritage Museum and many others, is that we are wholly run by volunteers. Museums that have employees are in the more ‘fortunate’ position of having qualified and on-site staff to plan and put in place the necessary conditions. 

As we are wholly voluntary, we have to rely on the goodwill and availability of volunteers to take on considerable tasks. By the very nature of heritage volunteering, many of our teams are in older/vulnerable age categories and possibly more susceptible to health risks.  

The basic options we were faced with are:

Open

Open on a limited basis

Remain closed for the season

Look at ways of taking the museum and its stories out-with the Museum walls. 

Factors to consider:

Do we have capacity in terms of volunteer availability and desire to engage? 

As explained many of our volunteers are older and cannot be put at risk

Can we achieve the necessary social distancing guidelines?

The Wick Heritage Museum is made up of a series of small rooms with narrow corridors and stairways and a one way system is not practical.

The guided tour was a key element of our offering. This would not be possible.

What will the local community expect from us?

From general discussions the community at least understand our decision and welcome our intended approach of taking the ‘Museum Beyond the Walls’

Do we have the resources to make the required social distancing and hygiene rules work?

With the Museum closed there is little income and any major expense in terms of resources threatens our reserves.

What will visitors expect in terms of hygiene and safety?

In this we have no real idea. We know what would be required of us, but it is difficult to predict the expectations of any visitors.

There is a genuine fear in the North of Scotland that visitors will see that we have been relatively free of the virus and therefore may not be overly responsible. Admittedly this is more of a perceived fear than a known reality.

How will our longer-term viability and credibility be affected by opening or not opening?

The Wick Heritage Museum has been a recognised visitor attraction and if visitors are disappointed to find the museum closed, this could affect our reputation.

What can we do ‘outside’ of the Museum to provide a heritage experience for both locals and visitors?

We have always recognised and received great support from the local community and while our ‘Museum Beyond the Walls’ concept is for everyone, we see this period as a new opportunity to engage with local people as well as tourists.

The decisions before us therefore were as follows: 

Open:

The Disadvantages:

Considerable amount of preparation required 

Cost of preventative and protective materials (some small funds may be accessible)

Difficulty in recruiting volunteers

Unable to do guided tours

The Advantages”

We provide the service people will/may expect

Income

Opening on a partial basis:

The Disadvantages:

Probable closure of some sections of the Museum

Compliance would still need to be achieved

The Advantages:

Some income

Provide ‘something’ for visitors

Not Opening:

The Disadvantages

Loss of credibility

Loss of income

The Advantages;

Time to properly prepare and make any necessary changes for 2021 Season

Opportunity to approach our heritage from a different perspective.

New Ways – Alternative Approaches

Create a concept of the Museum Beyond the Walls

We already have the Johnston Photographic Collection and Wick Voices, online.

Create a heritage map detailing and exploring the stories behind our local heritage, throughout the town.

Consider the use of the Museum Courtyard and the exterior of the historic Herring Mart as activity/display spaces (weather permitting)

Work with local shops and the Town Centre Development Trust to utilise empty shop windows as display areas

Work with other museums/attractions in the area

Continue to create online and social media content

Wick is classed as a ‘heritage’ town, so this provides an opportunity for visitors and locals to explore and understand the history and heritage of the Royal Burgh of Wick.