The final two projects to be awarded from the Strategic Change Fund, funded by the Scottish Executive and managed by the Scottish Museums Council (SMC) were announced at 12:00 Noon today by Frank McAveety Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport at The Writers Museum in Edinburgh.

Burns National Heritage Park is the lead applicant in partnership with 10 other organisations who will work together to preserve and promote public access to one of the country’s most significant distributed national collections – that relating to Robert Burns. The project will receive a Strategic Change Fund Award of £107,306.

A second important project, which has been awarded £129,552, will create a leadership development programme for Scottish Museums. This exciting programme brings together museum staff from across 12 local councils and the University of Glasgow who will develop a programme in association with the Scottish Leadership Foundation.

Mr McAveety said,
The Strategic Change Fund has over the last two years made significant strides in stabilising and developing the non-national museums sector of Scotland’s cultural heritage sector.
The final two awards today, the Burns National Heritage Park and the development of a leadership development project, reflect both the need to recognise and preserve Scotland’s important cultural assets, whilst underlining the importance of active partnerships working together to bring about positive change.
The Executive will redirect part of the resources presently engaged in the Strategic Change Fund to the Regional Development Challenge Fund and to support for other work arising from the Action Framework from 2004-05 onwards.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the programmes for change for their hard work, and wish them every success in the future.

The SMC’s Annual Report for 2002-2003, to be issued by SMC at the end of this month, describes the Strategic Change Fund as ”A catalyst for developing new partnerships and introducing museum organisations to new methods of working”. It was launched on 14 May 2002, and since then has encouraged the development of 12 visionary collaborative partnership projects that have awarded a funding total of £1,185,658 over the past year.

Although the projects are all in their early stages, they show great promise in bringing substantial change to the organisations and partners involved.

Jane Ryder, SMC Director, said
The Strategic Change Fund has highlighted that cross sector communication and partnership is crucial to museum sector development at regional level. SMC will be following the progress of all twelve projects awarded and will publish reports on their outcomes. These ongoing reports will not only demonstrate transparency and accountability but will provide other museums, local authorities and partner organisations throughout Scotland with information and encouragement to develop similar initiatives using these projects as exemplars for the future.

The Distributed National Burns Collection project, announced today, will provide real improvements to the management, exhibition and public access of Burns material.

The project will deliver a tested set of policies, procedures and agreements across the partner organisations and encourage skill-sharing to allow the collection to be managed and used more effectively by all partners. It will also produce a set of resources to facilitate greater public awareness and access to this vitally important distributed collection, including an accessible public guide to the distributed collection and a set of supporting educational resources. The project will also provide a model for effective cross-domain and cross-sector joint working across local authority and institutional boundaries, which is the key to increasing more effective use of resources and above all, to providing easier and more effective public access to our cultural heritage wherever it is located.

Nat Edwards, Director of Burns National Heritage Park said
The internationally important Robert Burns material held in Scottish museums is one of the most fragmented and least resourced of any collections, despite being one of Scotland's most important cultural treasures. The award of Strategic Change Funding to the Distributed National Burns Collection project will make it possible, for the first time, for Burns Clubs and independent museums to work with local authorities and national institutions to raise the profile of this vitally important material and to find ways to effectively work together to guarantee its place at the heart of Scotland's cultural life.

The pilot project for creating a leadership development network for Scottish museums came in part from one of the 122 recommendations made by SMC to the Scottish Executive’s consultation to develop an Action Plan for Scotland’s Museums and Galleries. It will involve 13 partner organisations from throughout Scotland, with 2 members of staff from each organisation taking part.

All members of the partnership will be matched with mentors from different sectors, who will challenge the mentees’ management thinking, develop leadership vision and generate new responses to issues and challenges. They will be able to participate in a people exchange, visiting other organisations to learn from different work practice. Support Networks and regional meetings will be established and the project will be promoted at key events including the 2004 UK Museum Association conference to be held in Edinburgh. The Scottish Leadership Foundation will facilitate the project and a consultant, Allan Jones, will manage the project on behalf of the partners.

Mungo Campbell, Deputy Director (Art Gallery) Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery said
The quality of leadership in the cultural sector has never been more important than now. The Strategic Change Fund Leadership initiative will bring lasting benefits to museums throughout Scotland. The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery is delighted to be a part of this initiative.