Supporting Scotland's Museums and Galleries

Discover the wide range of opportunities and support available to the sector to help deliver the strategy for Scotland’s museums and galleries.

Explore the strategy

Meet our team

An adult with medium-dark skin, braided brown hair, and a blue cardigan holds headphones to their ears while standing in front of a bright blue painting.

An adult with light skin and wavy brown hair wears white gloves and holds a small doll. They are standing between an adult with light skin and long straight blonde hair, and an adult with light skin and curly red-brown hair.

A crowd of people wearing bright colours and waving flags marches past a large stone building which features a sign reading 'Art Gallery'.

A group of adults in hard hats and hi-vis vests posing for a photo on a wooden walkway that leads to a wood roundhouse.

An adult with light skin and brown hair tied into a bun views a portrait by Maud Sulter, a Scottish artist of Ghanaian heritage, at Edinburgh’s City Art Centre. The portrait depicts an adult with medium-dark skin wearing a white wig and formal dress in the style of 18th century Western fashion.

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) is the national development body for Scotland’s museum sector. We support 450 museums and galleries through strategic investment, advice, workforce development, and advocacy.

Museum Futures

Museum Futures is a pioneering programme of funding and support which seeks to accelerate collaboration and innovation and embed organisational sustainability across the museum sector.

This programme, which is backed by £4 million of Scottish Government funding, was developed in partnership with the Scottish Government, Museums Galleries Scotland, and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A group of seven adults are standing aboard a ship. A large mast is standing tall behind them with a purple flag attached that reads 'Museum Futures'. A large grey building with an angular roof is also in the background.

448

Museums and Galleries

supported by us in Scotland

247

Accredited Museums

across Scotland meet the UK Museum Accreditation Standard

£6.5 million

In MGS Grants Funding

awarded to museums and galleries in 2025-26

51

MGS Learning Opportunities

provided to the sector in 2025-26

A hand with light skin holds a wooden branch. The tip of the branch has been worked into a point. A saw is cutting through the branch.

Safeguarding Scotland’s Living Heritage: One Year of Protection Through Connection

Peter Hewitt, Intangible Cultural Heritage Project Coordinator at MGS, provides an update on the Protection Through Connection project. A two-year project, which aims to raise the profile of Scotland’s living traditions by building stronger relationships between heritage sites and communities that maintain their own cultural traditions.

A group of adults stand together holding two pride Progress flags.

MGS achieves LGBT Charter Award

Our ongoing work to become an LGBTQ+ inclusive organisation has been recognised with a Silver Charter Award from LGBT Youth Scotland.

26 October, 2026

Call for proposals: Strategy Symposium 2027

Contribute your ideas and help us shape the programme of Scotland's Museums and Galleries Strategy Symposium 2027.

Price: Free
Organiser: Museums Galleries Scotland
Location: The Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh