Museums Galleries Scotland manage a program that identifies and recognises collections of national significance to the people of Scotland that are held outside the national museums and galleries of Scotland. The Recognition process is extremely thorough and involves the organisation that owns the collection submitting a thorough report outlining not only why it is of national significance but why the theme of the collection is of importance to the people of Scotland. This is then assessed by experts and MGS staff and if it is felt to be an eligible collection it is submitted to an assessment panel who will then make the final decision.
To date there are 37 Recognised collections across Scotland ranging from archaeological material, through mining to the national football collection. Once a collection is recognised the organisation that owns it is able to apply for special funding to assist with the care, display and promotion of the collection.
One such collection is held by the Perth Museums and Art Gallery, located about an hour by train from Edinburgh. Perth is a beautiful town and I visited on a fairly rainy day- nothing like Perth in Western Australia. The museum is located in a purpose built 1930s building but the collection goes back to 1786 with the establishment of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth, followed by the Perthshire Society of Natural Science in 1867. The collection has an incredibly broad scope and includes an enormous oil painting and watercolour collection, decorative arts (with a focus on local glassmakers and silversmiths), ethnography (including Australian Aboriginal and New Zealand Maori material from the early nineteenth century), a strong costume collection, natural science specimens (including some fairly recent road kills) and social history.
In the 1993 Perth suffered a major flood which included much of the collection area (493,000 gallons of water entered the building). When I was walking by the river the wall reminded me a little of the walls that have been installed around Murwillumbah for similar reasons. Within the museum, there was much work done in the collection areas to improve storage and reduce the number of opportunities for water to enter the building (including special seals on doorways including the lift).
As the space in the building is quite tight, the museum and gallery have been given funds through the recognition scheme to install numerous compactus units to increase the amount of collection they are able to store on site.
A large collection of works by Scottish colourist artist John Duncan Fergusson was acquired by the museum and gallery in 1990. An old water tower was refurbished to house the collection and opened in 1993 as the Fergusson Gallery. In 2010 a large collection of work by his partner, the dancer and choreographer Margaret Morris was donated to the gallery. Her collection includes paintings, costume and set designs, costume and an extensive photographic collection. Some of this was on display when I visited as it's the 100th anniversary of the Margaret Morris dance movement.
During my visit we discussed the value of being a recognised collection to the museum and gallery. It was felt that this status was really helpful not only by providing access to specific funding but because it helped the museum and gallery to highlight the significance of the collection to the council. A civic reception was held when the museum and gallery received Recognition and this status is highlighted on the museum and gallery's website.
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