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Background Information
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Following the publication of the National
Cultural Strategy for Scotland in 2000, the Scottish Executive
set aside £3 million over a three-year period (2001 – 2004) for
strategic restructuring within the museum sector.
From the original sum of money, £1.4 million
was immediately allocated to three industrial museums – the
Scottish Maritime Museum, the Scottish Fisheries Museum and the
Scottish Mining Museum. Following that, criteria for allocating
the remainder of the fund were approved in May 2002 under the
heading of the strategic change fund. Applications were sought
under one or more of the three broad themes:
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Building museum
audiences
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Building
organisational capacity
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Increasing access
to collections
The Scottish Museums Council, based in
Edinburgh, was appointed by the Scottish Executive to administer
the Strategic Change Fund.
Museum nan Eilean was one of the ten projects
form throughout Scotland selected from over thirty Phase 1
applications. The project title is ‘Links – Partnerships for
Change’ and is intended to bring Museum nan Eilean, Comainn
Eachraidh and other relevant community group, the islands
Archaeology Service, Lews Castle College and the University of
the Highlands and Islands – Millennium Institute, Gaelic
Sqeulachan and other relevant local agencies with a cultural
remit, to review existing provision with the cultural heritage
sector and to create a co-ordinated a sustainable strategy
for the collection, preservation and interpretation of island
heritage.
The main aims of the project are:
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To review Museum
nan Eilean, its services and its relationships with other
bodies in the Western Isles, community and public, operating
in the heritage sector.
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To create a long
term, co-ordinated and sustainable strategy for the
collection, preservation, interpretation of the local cultural
heritage with an emphasis on partnership and increasing access
to this heritage.
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To identify
organisational change necessary to deliver a new sustainable
strategy.
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To ensure that
Gaelic, with its distinctive linguistic and cultural
traditions are at the core of the strategy.
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Museum nan
Eilean
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Museum nan Eilean is the local authority
museums service and operates from two venues in the Western
Isles. Its museum in Stornoway is supported by a small
group of full-time staff and two part-time museum wardens. The
second museum is situated in Sgoil Lionacleit in Benbecula and
is supported by an Museums Officer.
Both venues run a varied programme of
displays that include touring exhibitions to other centres in
the Western Isles. In addition, Museum nan Eilean offer advice
and practical assistance to Comunn Eachdraidh, community groups
and independent museums in the area.
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Partner Details
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An important part of the ‘Links’ project was
to include a variety of groups and organisations as partners in
the research and consultation element of the programme. In
general, museums are becoming more involved in activities
out-with the usual ‘formal’ history display. A number of
partners have been approached to examine, along with Museum nan
Eilean, new ways of delivering a comprehensive interpretation
programme suited to the modern communities of the Western Isles.
These partners include:
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Comunn Eachdraidh
(Comunn Eachdraidh Bharraigh agus Bhatarsaigh for the Pilot
Project)
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Social Work
Department (CNES)
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Islands Archaeology
Service (CNES)
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Education
Department (CNES)
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Western Isle Health
Board
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Western Isles
Tourist Board
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Lews Castle College
– Millennium Institute
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Western Isles
Enterprise
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Proisceat nan Ealan
There is also additional project management
support provided by the Scottish Museums Council. |
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The Living Room
– Links Pilot Project
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As part of the
Links project, funding was provided to enable Comunn Eachdraidh
Bharraidh agus Bhatarsaidh to work with Museum nan Eilean on a
pilot interpretive project. The pilot was an experiment in new
ways of both developing and interpreting collections and
heritage.
As a first step,
the Comunn went through its collections with staff from Museum
nan Eilean. It identified the theme of traditional domestic life
as one that it wished to interpret. The collections are also
strong in this area. Collectively, the key artefacts were
selected. It was then decided to present them in reconstructed
room setting, accompanied by some labelling and introductory
display panels.
To provide an
authentic domestic feel, recordings of local storytelling and
music were then selected to form an aural backdrop. The
gathering of these stories was itself the subject of a dedicated
evening event, organised and managed by the Comunn Eachdraidh in
association with Museum nan Eilean. A CD of the edited
highlights from this event can now be purchased.
Simple, low cost
graphics and displays were then designed and installed by Comunn
Eachdraidh volunteers and Museum nan Eilean staff. A modest
budget for the exhibition and for promotional literature,
allowed the development of a highly effective, original and
authentic portrayal of life on Barra.
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