Museums Galleries Scotland

Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment.

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) is the lead body for the advocacy, funding and development of over 340 museums and galleries in Scotland. The home page of the MGS website includes a list of contact information for museums all over Scotland, which you can browse by name or area. 

MGS is a strategic agency with core funding provided by the Scottish Government. It, in turn, is the main conduit for Scottish Government funding to the sector. 

MGS development work includes work themed around the National Learning and Access Strategy for museums and galleries in Scotland.

School programmes

Local museums are happy to provide details of their schools programme, or to discuss the creation of customised learning programmes to meet specific needs. This could include services such as facilitated discovery visits to the museum; supplying Handling Boxes of objects to be used in schools; or a series of museum workshops to support project work in the classroom.

Help to develop customised programmes to meet your curriculum needs

Together with learning staff in museums, many Cultural Co-ordinators can offer their time and experience to support schools in developing projects involving museums, perhaps even calling on an artist to support creative work, helping to bring alive curriculum topics for students.

CPD

Many museums provide CPD opportunities for teachers. This may include welcoming teachers to join them on a temporary placement through the Careers Scotland EEBL (teacher placement) scheme, to create learning materials for use by schools in museums.

MGS grants scheme

The MGS grants scheme provides funding for schools and museums to develop and deliver partnership projects, supporting learning from objects.

Hands On guide to learning from objects

‘Hands On’ is an early years and primary teachers guide to learning from objects and paintings. This publication has been used with great enthusiasm and success by teachers. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to work with objects, and explains the value of this work to delivering Curriculum for Excellence.

Contact information

For further information, contact the Learning and Access team on 0131 550 4132, or email Helena Gillis or Loretta Mordi.