Members Together: Scotland offers a brilliant opportunity to familiarise yourself with what is happening at the MA, from our work on climate justice, decolonisation, wellbeing and anti-racism to the funding opportunities we offer.
Find out how to put our guidance into practice in your museum and hear how to make the most of your membership benefits. It also offers the chance to hear updates from, and network with, your colleagues in Scotland.
Getting our members together for interactive, lively discussions, key information and feedback is core to our membership offer and one of the many ways we highlight and celebrate our diverse membership. It ensures your voice is heard and that the MA reflects your work in our policy campaigns.
Join us at Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries for an event that is open to all individual members, commercial members and anyone who works for an organisation that is an institutional member.
Please note that this is an in-person only event.
You need to be a member to attend this event. Not yet a member?
JoinProgramme
1000-1330
Optional career conversations with Tamsin Russell
Tamsin Russell, our Workforce Development Lead, is available for informal career one-to-ones ahead of the event starting. To book a half-hour slot please email Tamsin@museumsassociation.org
Speakers
Tamsin Russell
Workforce Development Lead, Museums Association
1230-1330
Optional tours of Carnegie Birthplace Museum
Mark Macleod and Jennifer Jones, co-managers of the Carnegie Birthplace Museum in Dunfermline will give tours of the cottage where industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 and the museum that explores his philanthropic legacy. The Carnegie Birthplace Museum is a five-minute walk from the Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries where the MA Members Together event is being held.
1300-1400
Registration and networking
Tea and coffee available
1400-1410
Introduction by chairs
Our reps for Scotland give a warm welcome to delegates.
Speakers
Gillian Crumpton
Exhibitions and Community Engagement Manager, OnFife
Tom Hughes
Youth and Community Engagement Officer, The Devil’s Porridge Museum
Gill Ross
Volunteer Coordinator, OnFife
1410-1425
Welcome
Rachael Rogers, our vice president, welcomes delegates to the event and gives an update on the work of the MA.
Speakers
Rachael Rogers
Vice-president, Museums Association and Museums and Arts Manager, MonLife Heritage
1425-1500
AI ethics and museums
This session will explore how museums are navigating the AI landscape. What are the challenges and opportunities of using AI and how do we deal with our own, as well as our communities’, AI anxiety? The session will look at the emerging themes from the MA’s expert working group on AI and ethics and the headlines from Museums Journal’s research into museums and AI use.
Speakers
Sharon Heal
Director, Museums Association
1500-1530
Museums for Climate Justice
Find out how our Museums for Climate Justice campaign can support museums in tackling the climate and ecological crisis and hear from Fife Contemporary about their work on climate and how they have built sustainability into their exhibitions.
Speakers
James Anderson, Programme Manager, Fife Contemporary
Adé Bákàrè, Policy Officer, Museums Association
Kate Grenyer, Director, Fife Contemporary
1530-1540
Break
1540-1600
New funding guidance for the Esmee Fairbairn Communities Collections Fund
The Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund will continue in 2027 with an updated focus on work that strengthens communities, using collections. Hear about applying to the Communities and Collections Fund; how the new phase of the fund has developed from the MA’s Empowering Collections research; and how this relates to the other funds the MA runs.
Speakers
Craig Smith
Health and Wellbeing in Museums Project Officer, Museums Association
1600-1620
Wellbeing and ableism
We are committed to supporting the workforce through our work around inclusion and wellbeing. In this session we hear about the most recently published report into Wellbeing and Ableism and what the sector, leaders and co-workers can do to create an inclusive and non-ableist culture.
Speakers
Tamsin Russell
Workforce Development Lead, Museums Association
1620-1635
Co-leadership in a museum setting
How to manage a museum with only part-time staff, five hours a day, seven days a week, open 40 weeks a year and be accessible for education, tours, third party hire and research 52 weeks a year?
Jennifer Jones and Mark Macleod job share to co-manage the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum and joined in 2021. Hear how they use flexible working practices, technology, financial management and positive work mindsets to maintain the venue’s four-stars award, renew Accreditation and grow the education partnerships over the five years.
Speakers
Jennifer Jones, Co-Manager, Carnegie Birthplace Museum
Mark Macleod, Co-Manager, Carnegie Birthplace Museum
1635-1700
Panel discussion on the social impact of museums in Scotland
As part of our Museums Change Lives campaign, eight case studies were produced this year exploring how the nation’s museums were having real impact in their local communities. A panel representing three of these museums will discuss the stories behind these projects and how these experiences have shaped their ongoing work.
Chair
Gill Ross, MA rep for Scotland members
Speakers
Tom Hughes, Youth and Community Engagement Officer, The Devil’s Porridge Museum
Jennifer Pless, Community Engagement and Development Officer, Scottish Maritime Museum
Speaker TBC, OnFife museums team
1700-1800
Networking and tour of the venue
Delegates have the opportunity to network over drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) as well as take a tour around the venue. Led by the OnFife team, delegates can tour Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries, an award-winning cultural hub. The tour will take in the collections as well as the new exhibition Living Colour, an exhibition celebrating two centuries of Scottish art from the Royal Scottish Academy.
Two identical tours will run at 1700 and 1730.
Venue, access and sustainability information
Venue information
- Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries can be found at 1 Abbot St, Dunfermline KY12 7NL – click here to see the venue on Google Maps.
- The venue has a level entrance, with lifts to the upper floors. There are accessible toilets on every floor and a Changing Places facilities on ground floor.
- It is approximately a 11-minute walk to the venue from Dunfermline City Station. The venue has offers on-site parking.
- One arrival at the venue, please make your way to the Canmore Room where the meet takes place. A photograph of the room can be seen on OnFife’s website – it is a large room with natural light, a bookcase lined wall, ornamental fireplace and a high vaulted ceiling.
- Your badge will be available to collect on arrival.
Anti-ableism and access
- You can find out more about the venue and its accessibility provision via its website.
- Please see our accessibility guidance for in-person events – if you want to discuss your access requirements or need to request adjustments (such as closed captions or BSL interpretation) then please get in touch with us via events@museumsassociation.org.
Important booking information
Please sign in and check the email address on your profile before booking. Your joining instructions will be sent to the email address on your profile.
If you create a new record with a different email address your membership will not be recognised and you will not be able to book onto this event. You can check and change your email address before booking.
