XpoNorth Heritage

We want XpoNorth Heritage to reach as far as possible across the sector and discuss how you could benefit from having a fresh perspective on your project.

This map shows museums and galleries in Scotland that are open from Friday 1st April 2022. It is updated Mon-Fri by Museums Galleries Scotland. Know before you go and check the museum's website for opening times, availability and safety information.

New Heritage & Place Programme (H&PP) from HES launched. Info sessions in April and May. An area-based funding programme that aims to contribute to the development of vibrant and sustainable places in Scotland, through community-led regeneration of the historic environment. It supports the development and delivery of heritage focused schemes within conservation areas, or alternatively distinctive heritage areas with local authority recognition.

Data protection and cyber security with Naomi Korn Associates by Museums Galleries Scotland.

Tuesday 22nd February 2022, 10:00 - 13:00 GMT.

Todd, Head of Design at Finisterre, tells us how the team got to grips with the Museum’s cave of wonders when developing the apparel and accessories ranges.

For the past two years, sustainable outdoor brand Finisterre has collaborated with the Natural History Museum on collections spanning apparel, swimwear and accessories.

Thursday 16 December 2021 | 10:30 – 16:30 GMT

Join the Folklore Museums Network, Historic Environment Scotland and Museums Galleries Scotland in this collaborative workshop looking at the identification, interpretation and collection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Organisations and groups working with communities can apply for up to £5000 to take part in and celebrate Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, with new, creative events, activities and programming, spotlighting stories inspired by, created, or written in Scotland.

Tue, 18 Jan 2022, 09:00 – Tue, 5 Apr 2022, 17:00 BST

Effective leadership is central to the growth and sustainability of museums and galleries across Scotland.

This programme is for learners who are new or aspiring leaders. It is designed to support learners to develop key leadership skills in order to work productively with those around them and lead in an effective and authentic way.

The Museum Computer Network (MCN) has partnered with NEW INC, the New Museum’s innovation incubator, to unveil the online platform, Cultural Futures. Designed to foster communal support between museums, the portal arrays institution-submitted case studies of digital projects, accompanied by relevant information such as goals, budget, and durations. Cultural Futures was made possible through a Knight Foundation grant.

A monthly newsletter with fresh discoveries at the intersection of technology, design and museums.

This month the our team has been thinking about multi-layered interpretation following the opening of the Van Abbemuseum’s new permanent collection display using Smartify.

The West Highland Museum in Fort William is calling on the public to help bring a prestigious collection of paintings of the Royal House of Stuart from Europe to Scotland. In order to finance this important exhibition, the West Highland Museum team has embarked on an ambitious crowdfunding campaign. The campaign launches on Wednesday 13 October at midday on Art Fund’s Art Happens crowdfunding platform and runs until Monday 15 November.

With all eyes on Scotland ahead of COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, people across the world are engaging in discussion on the climate emergency. For our museums and heritage organisations, action on climate change is as urgent as in any other sector as we all adjust and develop plans for the transition to a net zero economy.

The rich Pictish heritage of the Highland Council area is being highlighted this week with the launch of a new website, app and leaflet encouraging local people and visitors to explore 32 Pictish sites along an expanded Highland Pictish Trail.

Today we announce the 22 museums, galleries and networks to benefit from the first round of 'Reimagine' grants, which aim to increase creativity and stability in the museum sector.

Art Fund is announcing the 22 UK museums, galleries, historic houses, trusts and professional networks that will receive a total of £658,331 to transform their activities as they navigate the next phase of recovery from the pandemic. 

If one of its principal architects had had his way, Inverness could have looked like a Paris of the north, and its cathedral more like Notre Dame.

Museums Associations are delighted to launch a new series of 10 case studies, joining our existing collections from Northern Ireland and Wales, capturing just how successfully the Scottish museum sector has adapted and developed its socially impactful practice at a very specific moment in time.

Museum Freelance is delighted to announced that they have secured funding to provide 28 grants of £500 for freelancers who work with museums, heritage sites, galleries, archives and libraries in the UK to use for their Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

Archaeologists excavating a tomb at one of Scotland’s oldest known monuments have discovered two polished, 5,500-year-old stone balls, reports Alison Campsie for the Scotsman.

The team made the find at Tresness, a chambered cairn on the Orkney island of Sanday that dates to around 3500 B.C.E.

Kids in Museums have written a blog on the ‘Welcoming Families and Young People with Autism’ training sessions that MGS ran in May 2021, in partnership with Claire Madge, founder of Autism in Museums.

Kids in Museums aims to make museums excellent places for children, young people and families to visit. We want all museums to be welcoming, accessible and fun.

How should conservation professionals go about preparing an appropriate fire strategy?

The recent high-profile fires at the Glasgow School of Art, Notre-Dame de Paris, the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro and the municipal archives in Kraków have reinforced the need for society to take better care of heritage buildings.

We hear the term “cloud” being thrown around quite often, but what is it exactly? Here’s a breakdown of what cloud entails and why you — as a museum or other cultural institution — should care about it.

The Scottish music archive ‘Rare Tunes’ has unearthed an LP recording by Champion Piper John MacFadyen. Its on the ‘Gaelfon’ label and dates from 1958and was recorded in Glasgow.

What was the Highlands like in the century before Culloden? Professor David Worthington's inaugural lecture will provide a new perspective, drawing on autobiographical sources relating to a traveller, scholar and minister from Kirkhill, by the shores of the Beauly Firth. I will seek to outline how this individual, Rev. James Fraser, or, at least, aspects of his self-presentation, might encourage a new way of looking at the Highlands and Islands today.

Thursday 30th September

Download this free guide to learn all your organisation needs to know about exceptions to copyright. This Heritage Digital guide provides an essential overview of the various copyright exceptions that can be used by heritage organisations to support their digital strategies by drawing on specific examples.

Historic Environment Scotland has led a research outcome of the Erasmusplus Traditional Building Skills project working with Scottish and EU partners comparing educational routes into building craft skills and developing new courses in schools and colleges.

Tuesday 24 August 2021

A rare set of Jacobite banknotes printed from the original copper plate ordered by Bonnie Prince Charlie before the Battle of Culloden 275 years ago is to go under the hammer in Edinburgh to raise money for a Highland museum.

Adam Nicolson, former owner of the Shiant Isles and author of Sea Room, will give an illustrated presentation, sharing stories about life on the island. Presented online and in the museum, the talk will be about 40 minutes with an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

Saturday 14 August, 2021, Online and In-person 4.00pm

Lost Inverlael: A ‘Lorg Baile Bhlàir is looking into the early settlement of Inverlael and Balblair. During phase one of the project when Ullapool Museum conducted archaeological surveys, they uncovered a prize find. An Illicit Whisky Still.

Develop the kind of leader you are and want to become.

This programme is for learners who are new or aspiring leaders. It is designed to support learners to develop key leadership skills in order to work productively with those around them and lead in an effective and authentic way.

What is believed to be Europe's oldest elm tree has succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease and is dying, say experts.

The wych elm at Beauly in the Highlands is almost 800 years old, with references to the tree found in records going back to medieval times.

In the war years, the site was regarded as strategically important to the national defence. In the post-Brexit and Covid era, it could have a new and significant role to play in a tourism campaign. Overlooking the Cromarty Firth at Nigg in Easter Ross, the family-run Castlecraig Farm is seeking ways to diversify with the agriculture sector facing political and market uncertainty. Which has put the collection of abandoned and derelict buildings scattered across the clifftops on the radar.

Scottish archaeologists begin post-excavation work on significant ancient Viking burial site in Orkney.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is funding post-excavation analysis on two recently discovered Viking graves that may form part of a previously unknown cemetery uncovered in Orkney, to unlock stories of Viking life in Scotland over a thousand years ago.

Voice-activated digital assistants that speak Scottish Gaelic could be one step closer thanks to a hi-tech advance by university experts that has made use of oral histories and traditional storytelling.

This book is an exploration of the role of folklore, culture and belief in mediating human relationships with the natural environment. Folklore has been widely recognised amongst scholars as a resource to promote and reimagine places (Light 2007; Mathe-Soulek, Aguirre, and Dallinger 2016), providing an opportunity to engage visitors with heritage, culture and the environment (Hopper et al. 2019; Paphitis 2013).

Phopachy on the Beauly Firth, home to James Fraser, a minister and scholar, who left the village to "seek the universe" in the mid-1600s. The Highlands might often be thought of as remote but history shows us that its people have long sought worldwide connections and inspiration. PIC: David Worthington.

28 - 30 June 2021

Have you ever wondered how museums can use digital to boost their revenue? Are you under pressure to build new income streams but not sure where to begin?

If you want to boost your museum’s income with digital, this event is for you. Over three days, hear from museum professionals and digital experts who’ve done just that!

Song & Story of the Emigrant Gael - a three day, online course, contextualising the history and experiences of the emigrant Gael through their songs and poetry.

This programme, will provide a pathway for a further 30 heritage organisations across the UK to be ambitious, forward thinking and deliver exciting new projects. Each participant must have a business idea which they will have the opportunity to develop throughout the duration of the programme and present for seed funding at the 6 month marker. Top up funding to a maximum of £10,000will be available at the end of the 9 month development period.

The West Highland Museum is very pleased to announce that they have been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award given to charitable organisations. It is the equivalent of an MBE for volunteering.

Climate Beacons for COP26 is a Scotland-wide collaborative project between climate change or environmental organisations and arts, heritage or cultural organisations to stimulate long-term public engagement in the lead-up to and following COP26.

A new tourist trail will help piece together the enigmas of Pictish life in the far north this summer.

The Highland Pictish Trail is due to launch early next month and will bring together the most important Pictish sites.

Prehistoric animal carvings thought to be thousands of years old have been found for the first time in Scotland.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said the carvings - thought to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old - were discovered inside Dunchraigaig Cairn in Kilmartin Glen, Argyll.

As the museum and gallery sector navigates the next phase of recovery from the pandemic, we’re launching a new £2 million project grants scheme to help institutions move forward, as well as announcing the opening of applications for the third round of Headley Fellowships.

The report provides valuable insight into how heritage was affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis over the past year and the challenges the sector still faces.

Art Fund Museum of the Year, the world’s largest museum prize, is back. A celebration of the UK’s museums and galleries, the 2021 prize will reflect the resilience and imagination of museums throughout the pandemic.

This report helps to understand the priorities for museums and galleries for 2021 and beyond.

Read full report here...

Smartify and CCD's latest guide, The Multi-Platform Museum, offers tools for cultural institutions as they reopen and remobilize. Image: Ryoji Ikeda at 180 The Strand

Join the Hoy community as they take you on a circular trip around the parish. Over thirty voices, some archive recordings and many new, will accompany you as you hear about Hoy, its people and places. Explore the archaeology, folklore, flora and fauna of the area in this immersive tour of a remarkable island parish.

Island Darkroom photographer Mhairi Law (whose work ‘The Edge of Blue’ features on our Café Bar wall installation) has recently established The Scottish Analogue Directory – an online database and resource for fellow analogue artists across Scotland.

The practical, financial, and social impacts of the coronavirus alongside a national reckoning with racial injustice has increased the urgency to address why, how, and for whom museums exist in the 21st century. For museum professionals, this pivotal question raises another: how might we transform our collective approach to designing museum experiences to better reflect the diverse communities we serve?

What does blockchain mean for the cultural heritage sector?

After the sale of a digital collage by artist Beeple for $69m this month and news that Damien Hirst is planning to sell similar NFT artworks later this year, it is perhaps inevitable that attention has turned to museums and the potential to make money selling digitized collections via NFTs (non-fungible tokens)

A new app has been launched that aims to bring one of the most popular elements of any natural history museum into the homes of users. Museum Alive blends augmented reality (AR) technology with the latest palaeontological research so that people will be able to see dinosaurs roaming their natural environment from millions of years ago, only this time in an ordinary domestic setting.

People will be able to explore a 16th-century masterpiece by the Dutch painter Jan Gossaert

The National Gallery is to offer its first exhibition designed for mobile phones, allowing people to experience in incredible detail a 16th-century Dutch masterpiece telling the story of the birth of Jesus.

Think long term, assess the positive – and negative – impacts of your actions, and remember: small changes can make a big difference.

In March 2020, MGS shared the Delivery Plan for the National Strategy for Scotland’s Museums and Galleries 2020-2022.
A year on, despite the enormous challenges of 2020 and 2021, Scottish museums have worked extremely hard to deliver against the Strategy’s six aims.

Alex Aldred, writer-in-residence with Historic Environment Scotland, takes a look at the patron saint of poets: Saint Columba.

New insights into the Battle of Culloden are set to be revealed in a series of special events being held to mark the 275th anniversary of the historic clash.

A recent $3.1 million sale of some NFT sneakers has speculators wondering about the future of digital fashion. Why the NBA’s Top Shot clips and purchasable outfits in video games like Fortnite may hold some clues.

Craft Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) are offering a new online research residency, providing an opportunity for a maker to explore the wealth of material in the archives of HES.

Closing date 25th March 2021

Fascinating new details of a massive feasting site on Orkney, where people gathered on a clifftop in huge numbers around 1,500 years ago, have emerged.

Welcome to Historic Environment Scotland Archives’ Digital Projects 2021 Showcase! Join us in celebrating the end of a four-year project through which we have preserved and made available online over half a million items. Beyond the Physical will take you on a photo-illustrated journey through some of the newly available collections, presented under three themes: Preserving the Historic Environment, Under the Soil, and Hidden Treasures.

The Art Museum skill uses Alexa Conversations, an AI-driven dialogue management tool. The venerable Art Institute of Chicago is now welcoming visitors again after being closed for much of last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Amazon's Echo Show, however, the museum is always open, thanks to the Alexa skill Art Museum.

Gift shops are like the final exhibit of an art museum. They’re often located toward the exit and are unmissable on your way out the door. Souvenirs inside can range from Vincent Van Gogh socks to giant stuffed soup cans to Mona Lisa rubber ducks. But how do gift shop curators decide what to sell?

Despite all the financial pressures placed on cultural attractions by the pandemic, the Natural History Museum’s commitment to creating ‘advocates for the planet’ is not for sale at any price.

Imperial War Museums has announced a £2m project for new art commissions depicting conflict, continuing a role dating back to the first world war.

The fund from royalties from Peter Jackson’s Academy Award-winning film They Shall Not Grow Old, which was commissioned by IWM, would ensure funding for more than 20 ambitious commissions bringing art to audiences across the UK, the museums said. Awards will range from £20,000 to £250,000.​

This guide is designed to help heritage organisations meet The National Lottery Heritage Fund's open licencing requirement.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s licensing requirement supports open access to the rich heritage in the UK and the exciting possibilities of digital transformation in the cultural sector. All materials created or digitised with grant funding are subject to this requirement, which was updated in September 2020.

The topics explored in this year’s report offer an opportunity to analyze an alternative future for the museum sector. In TrendsWatch, Merritt often postulates interesting “could be” scenarios for the museum world and helps museums think about how to prepare.

Do you use social media to promote Scottish history, heritage, archaeology, museums or archives?

Join the free online event to talk with people in similar roles, share your social media insights, ask questions and pick up practical tips.

Tue, 23 March 2021 | 15:00 – 17:00 GMT

Connect, create, and collaborate in new and shifting environments.

In this edition, we are talking about audio-based social media and their opportunities for cultural heritage institutions, hacking GLAM data, and initiatives in the realm of digital volunteering as well as learning about colonial heritage.

In 2019 The National Lottery Heritage Fund commissioned research to understand the heritage sector’s views on resilience and business support needs.

The research looked at organisations’ experiences, needs and challenges prior to the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19). Many of the findings pre-COVID have also been reflected in more recent conversations with heritage organisations.

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) is the National Development Body for Scotland’s museums and galleries. They support more than 400 museums and galleries, through strategic investment, advice, advocacy, and skills development.

The Activating Smithsonian Open Access Challenge (ASOA) from Cooper Hewitt’s Interaction Lab aims to support creative technology teams in designing engaging interactive experiences with Smithsonian Open Access collections for people all over the globe.

A short Oral History as Part of Ullapool Museum's #OralHistoryFriday​ campaign.

Mary Catherine MacKenzie recalling her expereience of the Storm of 1953 which washed up the Ullapool Fishing Fleet.

Watch here...

Keep to to date with the upcoming events with Museum Galleries Scotland

w/ Anna Lowe, Wouter van der Horst, Gwendoline Knybühler

Thursday 18th February

Museums & tech people chatting. 1 hr weekly. This week reviewing examples of museum digital memberships & subscriptions. Leaving lots of space for anyone & everyone to join the stage!

Highland Threads was conceived at a Highland Heritage Cafe – a regular online meet-up for people working in heritage in the Highlands. We share ideas, discuss issues affecting our sector and find ways to support each other. This support could be as small as recommending a supplier or, like Highland Threads, an ambitious plan for an innovative digital partnership project.

Whether you're an artist or a designer, an educator or a student, a professional or a hobbyist, you now have more than 406,000 images of artworks from The Met collection to use, share, and remix—without restriction. This policy change to Open Access is an important statement about The Met's commitment to increasing access to the collection in a digital age.

Robin Sayetta of the Museum of Modern Art shares how leading cultural institutions are implementing novel ideas to bring beloved art to the licensing world.

Archaeologists may have discovered another Skara Brae around half a mile from the world-famous Neolithic village.

Skara Brae is considered the best preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe with people first making their home there around 3,100BC.

From ancient Chinese ceramics to Alexander McQueen evening dresses, take an incredible journey through 5000 years of human creativity with our online collections.

Featuring historical masterpieces like the ‘Mona Lisa.’

Following its Spring/Summer 2021 collection with Inès Se La Fressange last month, UNIQLO has unveiled a new range in collaboration with Musée du Louvre in Paris. On top of that, the duo has announced a four-year partnership with the aim to offer a variety of programs to better familiarize the public with the museum‘s iconic masterpieces

'We highlight a tool developed by Meemoo, the Flemish Institute for Archives, which helps cultural heritage institutions to determine whether their collection items could be in the public domain. The tool is available in Dutch, and its innovative approach can act as inspiration and guidance for all looking to accurately identify copyright in their collections.'

The scheme will support museums, galleries, cultural heritage institutions or museums services in the UK access one of eight £1,250 grants to enable them to commission Icon Accredited members to undertake conservation activities.

Art Museum lets you find art with your voice. It's powered by a public API from the Art Institute of Chicago, and Alexa Conversations, Amazon's next generation AI-driven dialog manager. It was recently awarded the Grand Prize in the Alexa Conversations Skills Challenge.

Applications are open for National Lottery Grants for Heritage from £3,000 up to £5million. We will prioritise projects that contribute to our recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

As the pandemic continues to impact so many aspects of our lives, we want to fund projects that demonstrate the value of heritage to our national life and which support local economies, places and communities.

"We’re pleased to announce one of the web engineering team’s most ambitious projects: our museum’s first open-data API."

An API is a means of communication between systems that’s ubiquitous today—it’s how your smartwatch talks to your phone, how your phone shows your Instagram feed, and how our website communicates with our search engine.

"I read recently on Piping Press: ‘But it was not until 1854 that pipers were recognised officially by what was the UK’s War Office’. Although from an interesting article, this statement does not hold true. It is belief still commonly held however, but easy to disprove. The evidence that pipers had formally been a part of Scottish regiments is easy to find and starts with the Acts of the Scottish Parliament for 1643.

The islands’ notorious fire festival, Up Helly Aa, might be cancelled this year, but there’s still plenty of Norse code to crack, says Janice Hopper.

Check out Tarbat Discovery Centre Friday finds. The latest is this humble beach pebble that was transformed into a ‘fire-gilding stone’. Used to grind an amalgam of mercury and gold leaf together, it is the best evidence for gold-working at Portmahomack. The amalgam was applied to metal objects and mercury burned off leaving a gilded surface.

Head binding may have been used on children in Orkney to change the skull shape of some of island’s young during the Neolithic period, it has been claimed.

Dr Alison Sheridan, former long standing principal curator of prehistory at National Museums Scotland, raised the prospect of the practice during her recent Rhind lecture series for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Excavations of Scottish Neolithic chamber tombs have unearthed an abundance of evidence of violence during the period with women, children and the elderly not spared from the brute force.

Dr Alison Sheridan, former Principal Curator of prehistory at National Museums Scotland, shared a catalogue of injuries, mostly found in Orkney, in her recent series of Rhind lectures for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Working with suppliers, and harnessing the benefits of their specialist expertise, is fundamental to the effective operation of organisations within the heritage sector.

The aim of this guide is to help heritage organisations navigate copyright properly so that they know and understand what they can do with the content that is commissioned.

Thursday 28th January alongside Prof. Donna Heddle (UHI) and Dr Stewart Massie (RGU). The 'Angle of Vision: Storytelling on the cosmic tide?

Each workshop will last for approximately 2 hours and will combine speaker expertise and activities to generate discussion, insight and tangible outputs.

"Our new series looks at the dawn of the Neolithic period in Scotland around 4,000BC, when immigrants from the near Continent arrived and revolutionised the country. We look at the people, the way of life, the rituals and the violence that helped to shape this most fascinating era."

The spectacular feature in the landscape is likely to have drawn people from all over a Scottish island around 5,000 years ago for ritual and ceremony.

The discovery of a cursus monument site at Tormore on the Isle of Arran, which is more than a kilometre long, is helping to reshape Neolithic history in Scotland with such landmarks usually associated with the east coast.

At least 40% of UK museums are in rural areas, according to ​a preliminary estimate of the Mapping Museums research project at Birkbeck, University of London. Most are small and independent. The National Trust is the main custodian of Accredited museums rural regions and, given the recent public and political interest in the organisation’s exploration of its properties’ colonial histories, it is a critical time to address decolonial practices in small, rural museums.

We continue today with more of the brilliantly edited historic photographs from Ronan Maguire of St Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band, Dublin. The picture above is of Alexander Glen and a young David Glen in their workshop in Edinburgh circa. 1880.

Three heritage sites in the north have won a share of £1.9million Lottery funding – providing a boost to tourism during the Covid pandemic.

The investment will help support the development of Dundreggan Rewilding Centre near Loch Ness, the Strathnaver Museum at Bettyhill and Braemar Castle.

Thanks to the technical wizardry of St Laurence O’Toole piper Ronan Maguire, Piping Press is now able to publish enhanced and coloured images of important historical figures in piping and pipe bands.

In this webinar, Geoff Laycock will be exploring different image capture methods while assessing how to choose the best approach for you.

Wed, 27 January 2021 | 14:00 – 15:00 GMT

Travel distance, ticketing systems, trip planning… Here are the top five access challenges discouraging attendance.

The pandemic has changed where people want to spend leisure time – and this may represent an opportunity for cultural entities situated outside of major cities.

Visitors to cultural entities – and particularly members and subscribers – are more likely to be voters passing the policies that shape our nation.

After a challenging year, museums are opening themselves up to creative revenue streams—including sponsored content.

A survey of relevant features from eight institutional and eleven commercial online 3D repositories in the scholarly field of 3D digital heritage. Presents a critical review of their hosting services and 3D model viewer features.

Proposes six features to enhance services of 3D repositories to support the GLAM sector, heritage scholars andheritage communities.

Drone flyover of Inverness, the capital of the highlands using a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. Inverness is the gateway to the North Coast 500 aka The NC500

Watch here...

Axis Studios was charged with recreating an entire CG Elizabethan London for the second season of Sky One’s original drama, A Discovery of Witches.

The Axis team delivered 100 shots for 10 episodes over a span of 18 months, which included working throughout the challenges of the COVID pandemic.

Friday 11 December 2020 | 11:00 - 12:00

Are you an ambitious, forward thinking, small to medium sized heritage organisation with an income generating idea? Turn it into reality with Steps to Sustainability, the Social Enterprise Academy’s new National Lottery Heritage Fund project which AIM is partnering on.

The project is led by Robert Gordon University who have, alongside their partner countries, started collecting stories in the North of Scotland in the last few months

As winter came, the skeklers moved from house to house, dancing around the fire and banging wooden staves on the floor in a celebration of the supernatural.

In this “Next-Gen Gaming” article series, Brian interviews a variety of personalities from around the gaming industry to get an objective look at key topics related to the next generation of gaming spanning genres, platforms, team sizes, business models, and more.

West Highland College UHI's Centre for Recreation and Tourism Research has launched a community-led story gathering project.

Read full news article here...

Check out these FREE Editing Software tools...

Great advanced tools to make your editing look pro.

Smartify e-shop aims to solve the problem of low public awareness of museum online shopping and encourage conversion to purchase at the moment when audiences are engaged in storytelling about the original object itself.

#Museum This #Letter set off one of the most infamous events in Scottish history - the Massacre of Glencoe. It was delivered to Captain Robert Campbell on the night of the 12th February, ordering him to slaughter the MacDonalds the following morning.

A three year project developed by Ullapool Museum to uncover the secrets and lives of the forgotten people of Blablair, Inverlael in Lochbroom. Who were forced from their homes 200 years ago this year.

A trip to the West Highland Museum. We discover the history of the museum, the area, and gain a real insight to how people lived and worked in days gone by. Also visit the amazing exhibits fro Bonnie Prince Charlie, Flora macDonald, Queen Victoria, and the Commandos, to name just a few.

The sign has now been acquired by Applecross Heritage Centre, which considers it as a “piece of history” which charts the swell of motorists now using the road after it was included in the North Coast 500 driving route.

This is a drop spindle used for spinning wool. It was owned by the great grandmother of the secretary of Raasay Heritage Trust and was used by her grandmother and mother, dating to the latter half of the 19th century.

Museums and Heritage Highland are inviting tenders from professional web designers to work with them to develop a dynamic microsite that will present their Textiles Exhibition, titled ‘Highland Threads’.

Gairloch Museum is inviting museum learning professionals and digital content providers to work with their Curator and volunteers to develop, deliver and market a programme of entertaining, heritage-related digital content and blended learning activities.

The hidden histories of a number of buried stone circles on the Isle of Lewis are to be revealed.

New funding from Historic Environment Scotland (HES) will allow researchers at the University of St Andrews to unearth more information about the stones that lie buried in the area close to the famous Calanais circle.

Museums and other cultural institutions are exhibiting increased interest in licensing as a means for driving revenue at a time when other funding sources – government subsidies and in-person ticket buyers, to name two – are under pressure.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has announced funding of £194,349 to 18 community-based projects to protect, promote or engage with Scotland’s coastal or waterway heritage as part of its Coast and Waters Heritage Fund.

Hopes rise that the Flow Country, the world’s largest carbon store, could become first peatland to win the status.

A stash of musket balls which are believed to have been sent to Bonnie Prince Charlie during the last Jacobite rising have been found near a Highland loch.

Scotland Loves Local encourages community shopping.

A new £1 million ‘Scotland Loves Local’ fund will provide grants of between £500 and £5,000 to hundreds of projects to promote town centre and online businesses.

An Intimate look at the selection of costumes from "The Queens Gambit" and "The Crown"

A financial tool that could help cities achieve a sustainable fiscal recovery

Around 20 men from Bernera and North Tolsta on Lewis – many brothers, cousins and neighbours - were interned in neutral Holland after serving for just four days during World War One.

Groam House Museum have a fantastic selection of handmade and unique gifts, including an assortment of items lovingly made on the Black Isle by local artists, designers and makers.

Plus join a live Zoom session as Bob Pegg, Strathpeffer story-teller and musician, tells traditional tales that were once heard round winter firesides in the Highland (Sunday 15 November 5.00pm)

To celebrate the final year of the Scotland’s Rock Art Project, Historic Environment Scotland are looking for striking and memorable images that capture the essence of prehistoric rock art in Scotland – its remote and beautiful setting, the stunning effect of light and weather, the enigmatic motifs and texture of the rock – and how rock art can inspire people through engagement and creativity.

Between the coronavirus pandemic, enforced social distancing and a lockdown, we’re all looking for ways to boost our mental and physical fitness. Could spending time with Scotland’s history help?

During museum closures this year it quickly became apparent that to increase accessibility from home Smartify needed an interface accessible on desktop. This is where they formed the idea for the Smartify web app.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is working with the Museums Association and creative design agency The Liminal Space to launch a new £200,000 Digital Innovation and Engagement Fund for museums.

Designed to reflect their home port, each knitted piece would feature anchors, ship wheels, marriage lines and true lover’s knots, which worked to form a pattern that was uniquely identifiable to each community.

Join us for the second free webinar of the Museums Immersive Network – a network for museums and immersive technology - on January 27th 2021.

Travel back through the centuries to Dun da Lamh, a Pictish-era hillfort with commanding views over Strathspey and which was a place of status, defence and tribal belonging.

Culloden’s Spirit of place is a wonderful and powerful thing – causing emotional, spiritual and physical responses in most of us. We may never be able to define it, and we can’t bottle it to replicate elsewhere, so it behoves us all to make the effort to protect it.

Grants to support Scotland’s historic environment sector to recover from the impacts of COVID-19

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) have published the latest results of a follow up survey scoping the impacts of COVID-19 on the country’s historic environment sector.

We believe that Scotland’s past can lead the way to a green recovery and an energy efficient future – after all, the greenest building is the one that already exists.

Do you share our passion for cultural heritage and have the skills to help us realise our ambitions? With a number of our Board Trustees due to retire in March 2021, we are seeking 5 new Trustees to play a key role in our ambitious plans for the future.

Surviving to Thriving: Supporting Sustainable Scottish Heritage Businesses

The NLHF funded Business Support Programme, ‘Surviving to Thriving’ (StT) has been developed by MGS, Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS), and greenspace scotland to support heritage organisations in Scotland to develop sustainable business models.

Evaluation of NLHF funded Business Support Programme project

Training providers for NLHF funded project to deliver organisational resilience skills to the heritage and third sector.

Listen here - The Rosemarkie Pictish Cross – Highland Objects Podcast Eleven

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) have announced the opening of a new COVID-19 Museum Development Fund.

Do you want to build a major donor giving programme?

The Historic Environment Recovery Fund will support organisations and safeguard jobs following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic

BEFS Policy & Strategy Manager Ailsa Macfarlane analyses the Scottish Household Survey 2019, placing the findings in the wider policy context.

Scotland’s enterprise and skills agencies are urging all businesses in Scotland to continue to actively prepare for changes taking place following the Brexit transition period.

Up-to-date advice and support will be available here

Phase III Castle Conservation works are complete!

We work with a sector of over 400 museums and galleries, supporting and enabling them to meet their objectives in a number of ways including, though strategic investment, advice, advocacy and skills development opportunities.

The Heritage Alliance has published its latest report on Heritage, Health and Wellbeing.

If social distancing practices give museums more direct control over the visitor experience, is this a time to experiment with routes and challenge our audiences in order to potentially broaden their horizons?

The telling the traditional stories in the traditional way. With a warm cup, a good fire and a chilling tale of Faeries, Ghosts and all manner of supernatural happenings.

We are compiling 100 things which can be said to represent the north. They can be objects, landscapes, foods, buildings, literature, songs, anything in fact, whether tangible or intangible that encapsulates the spirit of these communities.

Scotland has declared a climate emergency and our historic environment has unique potential to inspire climate action, as set out in this action plan.

The Highland Objects podcasts are a series of short podcasts each of which focuses on an object of cultural or historical significance located in the highlands.

Making the digital outputs from your project open for engagement, use and reuse means more people can connect with UK heritage than ever before.

Northword is a page dedicated to sharing and collecting stories in the Northern region of Scotland for the international Storytagging project.

The ship had left Gothenberg in Sweden and was on route to China when it hit a rock at the southern entrance to Lerwick harbour, Shetland and sank. The wreck was partially salvaged at the time of its wrecking and subsequently in the 1970’s, 90’s and more recently in 2016.

AIM and Museums Association are working together to support the sector in accessing the Kickstart Scheme, a new UK-wide initiative created by the UK government that offers fully-funded 6-month job placements to young people.

From our evaluation we found out that amongst other things it would be beneficial to grow our capacity to deliver work based learning, enable progression and entry routes through vocational learning and offer this as widely as possible

Do members and subscribers – who tend to be among our biggest advocates and repeat guests – have different onsite safety expectations compared to general visitors?

As a historic house, Waddesdon Manor contains many 3D objects and furniture on different perspective planes. We were tasked replicating Smartify’s super fast image-recognition capabilities for this mini Versaille.

XpoNorth are delighted to offer another round of heritage hangouts to support museums and heritage organisations as they look to embed digital into their future plans.

Museum Mangaer, Siobhan Beatson, tells all about this exciting new project that launched just before lockdown and is slowly building up steam.

This 18th Century model of the Hector, which is heralded as ‘Canada’s Mayflower’ may seem innocuous, however the story that it depicts is one of suffering and destitution, yet hope and new beginnings.

Culture and heritage sectors are to benefit from a £59 million funding package to protect jobs and help the industry weather the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

We all have memories of museums, and the power and magic they can inspire. So with Covid, changing budgets and engagement going digital, what does the future hold for museum visits?