Programme: Scotland's Museums and Galleries Strategy Symposium 2026

Arrive at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and complete your registration.

If you have any questions about the layout of the venue or your schedule for the day, please speak to our colleagues at the registration/help desk. They will do their best to help you or point you in the direction of someone who can.

Explore the collaboration space, meet some of our stall holders, including members of the MGS team. There will be other opportunities throughout the day to visit the different stalls, to make new connections and continue conversations.

There will be time to enjoy tea, coffee and pastries with sector colleagues before the day officially begins.

Room: Auditorium

Duncan Dornan, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Museums Galleries Scotland, will welcome you to the Strategy Symposium. He will then introduce a pre-recorded opening address from Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture.

Room: Auditorium

Museum Futures participants will share candid stories and early reflections from their involvement so far with the programme. Themes will touch on leadership, capacity, innovation, fundraising, and income generation. It will be an opportunity to learn more about the changes and opportunities that the programme is delivering.

Speakers :

• Duncan Dornan, Chair, Museums Galleries Scotland (session chair)
• Anna Day, Head of Cultural Services and Libraries, Leisure and Culture Dundee
• Fiona Greer, Development Director at The Tall Ship Glenlee
• Sandra Lowson, Director of Operations and Engagement, David Livingstone Birthplace Museum

There will be a short (15 minutes) break between sessions with water available

Please note, you will have selected which session to attend during the booking process for the Symposium. If you are unsure, please check with a member of our team at the help desk. A coloured dot on the programme side of your badge will indicate if you are booked on to a workshop. 

Panel discussion: What will the next Parliament do to support Scotland’s museums?

Room: Auditorium

Kathryn Samson, Channel 4 News’ Scotland Correspondent, will chair a panel session with senior politicians from Holyrood’s main political parties, who will set out their plans and take questions from the audience.

Speakers:

• Clare Adamson, MSP, Scottish National Party
• Neil Bibby, MSP, Scottish Labour
• Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP, Scottish Conservatives
• Patrick Harvie, MSP, Scottish Greens

OR

Workshop: Inclusion work in polarised times

Room: Cullen Suite

Since early 2024, participants in Delivering Change: Museum Activists have been building their understanding of anti-oppression through training and peer-to-peer reflection. In this practical workshop led by four Museum Activists, you’ll explore their work to make Scotland’s museums more welcoming to all people in an increasingly polarised climate and consider how to apply these approaches in your own context.

Speakers:

• Tom Hughes, Youth and Community Engagement Officer, The Devil’s Porridge Museum
• Tess Rodrigues, Museum Assistant, St. Cecilia’s Music Museum and Concert Hall
• Jen Keenan, Learning and Access Curator, Glasgow Life
• Caitlin Meldrum, Audience and Communications Officer, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Museum

Networking Lunch

Room: Lower Foyer

A lunch of vegetarian and vegan sandwiches and wraps, alongside a selection of fresh fruit, cakes, and traybakes will be served, as well as tea and coffee. This is an opportunity to connect with sector and MGS colleagues, and to speak with stall holders.

Delivering Change meetup

Room: Upper Foyer

Delivering Change participants are invited to join us in the Upper Foyer area to meet up and talk about their work and experiences.  Others are welcome to join them to chat about all things Delivering Change. It will be possible to bring lunch from the Lower Foyer into the Upper Foyer.

Visit the Physician’s Gallery: 

Take some time to visit the venue’s new temporary exhibition: Rag: A History of Blood which is on display 27 February – 19 October this year.

We also recommend visiting the new Joyce Grainger Learning Centre which includes a permanent exhibition exploring our relationship with health, medicine and our bodies.

Please note, you will have selected which session to attend during the booking process for the Symposium. If you are unsure, please check with a member of our team at the help desk.

Panel discussion: Collaboration and communities for climate

Room: Auditorium

This panel discussion will explore the ways in which museums can collaborate with their local communities and climate networks for collective action, audience engagement and funding. We will hear from museums, community climate action networks, and there will be time for a Q & A session.

Speakers:

• Lucy Neville, Museum Development Manager – Climate & Nature, Museums Galleries Scotland (session chair)
• Katy Firth, Museum Climate Change Exhibitions and Outreach Officer, Stromness Museum
• Jo Moulin, Museums Officer Promotions, East Lothian Council
• Keith Dunmall, Community development Lead NESCAN Hub

OR

Workshop: Hands-On Heritage: The Modern Apprenticeship experience

Room: Cullen Suite

Apprenticeships build skills, confidence and resilience across Scotland’s heritage sector. This workshop brings the apprenticeship experience to life through firsthand perspectives from a Modern Apprentice, showing how work-based learning creates lasting value for individuals and organisations alike.

The session highlights the powerful impact of investing in people — from strengthening teams and building capacity to supporting long-term organisational sustainability. Apprenticeships can inject fresh energy, new ideas and vital skills into heritage organisations of all sizes.

Whether you’re a manager, curator, educator or volunteer coordinator, you’ll gain practical, real-world insights into how apprenticeships can enhance resilience, spark innovation and future-proof your organisation. Supporting apprentices isn’t just good practice — it’s essential to the future of Scotland’s heritage sector.

Speakers:

• Karen Jamieson, Skills Development Manager, Museums Galleries Scotland (session chair)
• Megan Stamper, Workplace Assessor, Museums Galleries Scotland
• Shaun Wilson, Visitor Advisor, ANGUSalive

Comfort break with tea, coffee, and biscuits available.

Room: Upper Foyer

Delegates involved in planning or implementing the rationalisation of collections and disposals of objects are invited to spend the break together. This is an informal opportunity to come together to share learning and experience around collections rationalisation.

Please note, you will have selected which session to attend during the booking process for the Symposium. If you are unsure, please check with a member of our team at the help desk.

Panel discussion: Rationalising collections rationalisation

Room: Auditorium

Collections rationalisation is a fundamental part of healthy collections management. However, this important aspect of collections work can be all-to-often fraught with challenges around public perception, workforce isolation, ethical decision making, and practical hurdles.

This session brings together people actively involved in collections rationalisation to explore key challenges, barriers, and hurdles in their rationalisation, and identify practical approaches to how they have been overcome.

Speakers:

• Jacob O’Sullivan: Museum Development Manager, Museums Galleries Scotland (session chair)
• Emma Gilliland: Museums & Galleries Collections Lead, Angus Alive
• Sophie Lenihan: Museum Curator, The Royal Scots Regimental Museum
• Thomas Megaw: Lead Curator, Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museum

OR

Collaborating for health improvement World Café

Room: Cullen Suite

In this world café-style session, you will contribute to our understanding of where Scotland’s Museums and Galleries are currently in contributing to place-based health improvement and shaping an effective intersectional ecology. This will help the heritage sector evidence positive impact on population health.

You will be invited to join open discussions on themes ranging from impact evaluation to training, partnership working to policy awareness.

At the end of this workshop, you will have met new people, gained an insight to how your organisation can support, or share where your organisation is supporting, population health, and have a deeper understanding of why the sector identifies health and wellbeing as a priority in Scotland’s Museums and Galleries Strategy.

Speaker:

• Ruthanne Baxter, Civic Engagement Manager and Prescribe Culture Lead, University of Edinburgh
• Jenny Capon, Artist

Short break (15 minutes) to allow changeover between sessions. Water will be available.

Room: Auditorium

A brief update on MGS’s work to achieve the LGBT+ Charter Mark and how the sector might also get involved.

Speaker:

Ellie Muniandy, Senior Museum Development Manager, Museums Galleries Scotland

Room: Auditorium

This panel session will explore the ongoing collaborative work between colleagues from the Caribbean and Scotland. This includes creating inventories of Caribbean and African collections through projects such as Reveal & Connect (funded by Museums Galleries Scotland and the John Ellerman Foundation). The collaboration includes the 2024 return of a specimen of an extinct Jamaican lizard, the giant galliwasp, to Jamaica from The Hunterian. The session will also update on the development of guidance on repatriation and restitution for Scottish museums.

Speakers:

• Steph Scholten, Director, The Hunterian (session chair)
• Neil Curtis, Head of University Collections, University of Aberdeen
• Tasmin Evans, Project Curator, National Museums Scotland
• Elizabeth Morrison, Zoologist, Natural History Museum of Jamaica, Institute of Jamaica
• Shani Roper, Curator, UWI Museum, The University of the West Indies

Forward Focus: Lucy Casot, CEO, Museums Galleries Scotland, brings the event to a close with a look ahead to MGS’s work as the sector’s national development body.

Join MGS and sector colleagues for refreshments at The Voodoo Rooms. This will be a chance to continue the day’s discussions in a more informal setting.

We have reserved Carte Blanche, at The Voodoo Rooms from 5pm. It is located at 19a West Register Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AA.

This is an 8 minute walk from our Symposium venue or a 3 minute drive for anyone using a taxi or Uber or a 3 minute cycle. There will be steps on entry to the venue. There is no lift or wheelchair access.