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  • Last updated: November 8th 2023

Advice Topics

Find a wide range of advice on collections, engagement, audiences, employment, income generation and more. Each topic also includes a variety of toolkits and other useful resources to provide support to those working in museums or galleries.

Groups of visitors stand and sit around a large tall lighthouse lamp in the middle of a museum gallery. The walls, floor and ceiling of the gallery are all made of grey, unfinished concrete.
A group of people are standing together, listening to a tour guide speaking. The group of people is made up of a mix of younger and older people. The tour guide has a light skin tone and short brown hair.
Advocacy
These guides offer advice on how to advocate for the impact your museum or gallery.
A dark grey and bright orange display panel with paragraphs of white text. At the top of the panel, in orange text, are the words 'A Declaration of Discomfort'.
Anti-Racist Practice
Resources for museums and galleries exploring the legacies of Scotland's connections to empire, colonialism, and historic slavery.
Two adults stand and look up at a display of vintage cars.
Audience and Visitors
Find out how to identify, diversify, and accommodate for audiences at your museum or gallery.
An adult with light skin, brown hair, and glasses holds a clipboard and points at a museum case filled with biological specimens. Two adults with light skin, brown hair, and glasses stand behind the first adult, looking into the case.
Business and Governance
These resources offer guidance on governance and business planning at museum organisations.
A child with light skin and long braided brown hair sits on a yellow tandem bike. The bike is attached to the floor and an interactive panel which reads "Making Electricity".
Climate Action
Advice and tips on how museums and galleries can improve their sustainability and engage with audiences on climate action.
An adult who has light skin and red hair and is wearing a green jumper holds a measuring tape against a green silk dress. A lamp shines an intense white light onto the dress.
Collections
These advice guides describe how to acquire, store, care for, display, and dispose of collections.
A group of adults and children sit around a white table in a small room with rough white stone walls. The children are shaking glass jars filled with liquid.
Education & Learning
Resources on how to access and engage with both formal and informal learners at your museum or gallery.
An adult with long blonde hair and their back turned to the camera looks out from a first-floor balcony inside a long hall. The hall has a pointed wooden roof supported by slender white metal pillars.
Evaluation
Introductory information on how to conduct the monitoring and evaluation of your projects and audiences.
A young adult with light skin, long brown hair, and a short beard holds a mobile phone up to a tap-to-donate machine.
Financial Resilience
Information on income generation, grants, fundraising and tax relief for museums and galleries.
A woven rainbow decoration displayed next to a small white card. A rainbow pin badge is attached to the card. Printed onto the card are the NHS Highland logo, a rainbow, and the text "Thank you".
Health & Wellbeing
Advice on how to engage with health and social care providers to produce a positive impact on the physical and mental health, and wellbeing of people in Scotland.
Two adults with light skin stand in a large gallery with a high ceiling, arched walls, and a marble floor. One of the adults has a black guide dog. They are holding the elbow of the other adult, who is pointing towards the ceiling.
Inclusion
This page has a range of articles and videos on how to improve representation and inclusivity at your museum of gallery.
A smiling adult with medium-dark skin pours coffee from coffee pot into a cup. They are standing outdoors against a bright blue sky.
Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland
This advice topic highlights resources for museums and galleries which are looking to engage with Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).
An adult with dark skin and medium-length red braided hair and twin teenagers with dark skin and long black braided hair play in front of a wooden building white a grey metal roof at the Highland Folk Museum. The teenagers are running towards the adult, who is standing with a bicycle.
Marketing and Public Relations (PR)
Read these guides for advice on how to promote your museum or gallery through press, advertising, and digital content.
An adult with light skin, blonde hair, and glasses welcomes two adults with light skin and a child with light skin to the RRS Discovery. The child sits on a blue counter which features the words 'Welcome aboard' in white text.
New Museums
Find out how to set up, govern, and manage a new museum with the New Museums Toolkit.
An adult with light skin, medium-length brown hair, and a brown beard tills soil in a herb garden full of green plants.
Place-Based Working
Explore resources on Place-based working and how museums can collaborate with their local communities to address their needs and fulfill their full potential.
A woman and a man, wearing bright red and black traditional cloaks of the Nisga'a Nation, stand on a balcony next to a carved wooden memorial pole. Only a portion of the pole is visible and it depicts animals carved in to the wood.
Repatriation and Restitution
Resources to support museums on repatriation, restitution, and a list of requests for return made to Scottish museums and galleries.
An adult with light skin and short white hair stands at a reception desk and smiles. On the wall behind the adult are large photographs of ships.
Workforce and Recruitment
Resources for staff, volunteers, and trustees at museums and galleries. This includes guidance on implementing Fair Work practices at your organisation.