Focus on: collaboration in action

Museums and galleries can build their resilience by collaborating with others to pool their time, skills, and resources. In this edition of Focus On, museum sector workers discuss how partnerships and collaborations are increasing the impact of their work.

We find out about the benefits of museum and heritage forums from Comann Dualchas Innse Gall, working with local businesses and creators at Dundonald Castle and Visitor Centre, and how Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum has teamed up with other organisations to boost their community engagement.

An adult with light skin and medium-length blonde hair sits on a bench in a garden while a child with light skin and brown hair sits on the floor with a map and an ink stamp. The adult and child are laughing and smiling.

Scotland’s museums and galleries collaborate in and outside of the sector to tackle challenges, maximise opportunities, create efficiencies, and deliver mutual benefit for partners and communities.

This is one of the ten priorities of Scotland’s strategy for museums and galleries. You can read the collaboration priority area and actions in full here.

From informal meetings to long-term partnerships, a collaborative approach can introduce new perspectives to all areas of your work and increase the resilience of your organisation.

Forums can be vital in furthering the reach and resources of a region’s museums and galleries. Our Marketing and Communications Manager Louise Storie (she/her) spoke with Jasmine Montgomery Wilkie (she/her) at Comann Dualchas Innse Gall (CDIG), the Outer Hebrides Heritage Forum, to find out more about their work.

LOUISE: Hi Jasmine, thanks for taking the time to speak to me today. I’d like to start by asking why heritage organisations in the Outer Hebrides felt it was important to come together to form CDIG?

JASMINE: The Outer Hebrides has a strong community-led heritage and museums presence. Historical societies, known as comainn eachdraidh in the plural form in Gàidhlig (Gaelic), have been working throughout the island chain for many years to protect and preserve the unique tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Outer Hebrides.

Discussion on the importance of a heritage network in the Outer Hebrides has been ongoing for many years. Previous iterations of Comann Dualchas Innse Gall (the Outer Hebrides Heritage Forum) have existed, but this iteration was first constituted in 2018 and appointed the first employee (me) in late 2022.

Members of our volunteer committee are situated throughout the island chain of the Outer Hebrides. This gives us key insights into community-led heritage and museums activity in the wide and dispersed geographical area we cover. It helps us to understand what kind of activity is occurring in our local area, and this in turn helps us to present stronger cases for support to make real differences for our membership organisations.

LOUISE: How do your member organisations benefit from this partnership?

JASMINE: We encourage the 25 membership organisations in our forum to work collaboratively, and facilitate opportunities for this. If groups approach us with queries, we encourage them to connect with other membership organisations in the area who we know have conducted similar projects. This can allow us to tap into the local skills and knowledge we have on the island, on occasion reducing the need to bring in external partners and thus potentially reducing cost – a real benefit at a time of financial difficulty for many.

We also collate information from our membership to assist them in cases for support. For example, after polling our membership organisations about any questions or challenges they had with the Accreditation process, we presented our findings to the MGS Accreditation team. Not only were they very responsive to the challenges our membership organisations had outlined, we were also delighted to welcome Gillian Simison, Head of Museum Development at MGS, to the Outer Hebrides at the beginning of this year.

Gill delivered an informative session on Accreditation and answered questions for our members at our members conference. This had real educational value for the communities we serve, and we greatly appreciate the strong working relationship we have with MGS.

The Isle of Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides.

LOUISE: We’re really pleased to be supporting your work and encouraging closer ties between heritage organisations in the Outer Hebrides. Can you share any examples of collaboration within the network that have produced positive results?

JASMINE: Yes – we were successful in an application to the Museums Galleries Scotland Forums Fund, which allowed for projects to be run by geographical heritage and museums forums across Scotland. This meant we could host a conference in late February/early March 2024 in the Isle of Benbecula.

This was such a valuable event. We had polled our membership to find out which skills they would like support with, and so invited speakers such as the Conservation Officer from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Heritage Service, who conducted a practical demonstration of conservation of paper and photographic objects. These skills development opportunities build resilience in our workforce and volunteer sector, which has knock-on benefit further down the line.

The event was also a really natural way for us all to network and feel connected. Our geographic distribution and the cost of hosting these types of events are often barriers, so this opportunity helped to foster a sense of inclusivity and engagement. Something I also particularly enjoyed was how much Gàidhlig was spoken over the course of the two days: it’s the working language for many of our membership organisations.

Our feedback was positive from this event, and it stands us in good steading for our next conference, which we plan to host in 2026.

LOUISE: Why is it important for museums to find ways to collaborate with others, not only in the museum sector, but also in the wider heritage sector?

JASMINE: Our membership is varied– we have fully Accredited museums open all year-round in purpose-built facilities, and we have comainn eachdraidh who occupy small spaces and open seasonally. This makes it an interesting landscape for us all to work together in, with everyone’s experience valued. I think this helps us to foster a better sense of inclusivity and understanding within the overall sector, as we each bring our own sense of expertise.

In my opinion, the museums sector and the wider heritage sector both hold a core desire to care for, respect and treasure precious examples of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. We learn from one another, and our individual experiences in each sector are enriched as a result.

LOUISE: Thanks Jasmine for sharing your experience of working with museums and other heritage organisations as part of a forum. It’s clear that there are so many benefits to working in partnership: from peer support to tackling shared challenges, it’s sure to have a positive impact on the communities your organisations serve.

📢 Visit the Comann Dualchas Innse Gall website to find out more about their work. We also offer general information on museum sector networks and forums, and a guide on forward planning for geographic forums.

🏰 Museums and galleries can play an important role in their local economies by collaborating with small businesses and independent makers. General Manager Dr Kirsteen Croll (she/her) describes the benefits of this approach at Dundonald Castle and Visitor Centre.

“We’ve found that working closely with local businesses isn’t just beneficial—it’s the key to our success as a charity. Working together with local organisations has allowed us to expand our reach, knowledge, enhance our offerings, and build a more resilient community hub.

Collaboration is at the heart of our strategy. By teaming up with local businesses and organisations, we create mutually beneficial relationships that help us meet our goals while promoting community wealth-building.

For example, we source local products for our gift shop and café, showcasing regional artisans and producers. This not only enhances the visitor experience but also promotes local talent. Additionally, events such as our movie nights and walks often feature local vendors: this draws in diverse crowds and fosters a strong sense of community.

Our advice for working collaboratively with local businesses is to start small. Reach out to local businesses with clear, mutually beneficial proposals. Maintain open communication and celebrate shared successes. Partnerships take effort, but the rewards are well worth it. By working together, we can all create more community-led, vibrant and resilient cultural spaces.”

The ruins of a medieval castle. Thick stone walls and a two-storey keep are surrounded by grass.

📢 Visit the Dundonald Castle and Visitor Centre website to learn more about the range of events, activities, and retail opportunities they’ve created through collaboration with businesses and makers.

🗺️ Cultural organisations can work together to create new opportunities for engagement with their communities. Mark Macleod (he/him), Co-Manager of Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum, shares how they’ve contributed towards the ongoing success of PAST-PORT, an activity trail which encourages young people to visit sites across Dunfermline’s heritage quarter.

“A legacy from Dunfermline’s Great Places Scheme of 2019, the PAST-PORT scheme began as a collaboration between the Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries, Historic Environment Scotland (who manage our Abbey and Palace), and the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum. In 2021 the Abbey Church joined and the four partners now deliver school holiday activities under shared themes every spring, summer, and autumn.

The PAST-PORT aims to encourage partnership working, increase engagement from local families, share audiences, and incentivise repeat visits in subsequent school holidays.

The activities, which are aimed at 5-12 year-olds, are designed to be child or family-led. Staff delivery time is therefore low, but adult/child or child/child engagement and discovery is high.

It’s also free. In fact, all of Dunfermline’s heritage attractions are currently free entry, making the scheme popular with locals, families on holiday, and those who travel in from Lothians and from across Fife.

Holidays come round quickly, and it would be untrue to say the scheme runs itself. Each partner delivers their tasks on behalf of each other to ensure creative activities and increased publicity. Any successes are because of everyone working hard in the spirit of collaboration to promote Dunfermline’s heritage quarter.”

An adult with light skin and tied-back wavy red hair, an adult with light skin and medium length dark brown hair, and a child with light skin and short brown hair sit on the floor of a gallery. They are building a tower out of large wooden blocks.

📢 Find out more about the PAST-PORT activity by visiting the Heritage Quarter Explorer webpage.

Thank you to Jasmine, Kirsteen, and Mark for collaborating with us for Focus on: collaboration in action! We hope their contributions have sparked some ideas for the development of productive new partnerships at your organisation.

You can find out more about collaboration in museums and galleries by exploring the resources in our collaboration blog post. You can also contact us for advice and support in this area.

Thanks for reading Focus on. In next month’s edition we’ll be highlighting how museums are working on learning and development in Focus On: Education In Action.