New Digital Engagement Project for CnES Heritage Service in the Outer Hebrides

27 January 2021 at 10:45:42

Museum & Tasglann nan Eilean are delighted to announce that they have been successful in being granted £40,000 from the Art Fund 'Respond and Reimagine Programme for museums and galleries. 

This will fund a Digital Engagement Heritage Officer to work bilingually in Gaelic and English, building on the Dulachas na Mara Project, which ends this month and was very successful despite the challenges that were faced as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

The new 'Didseatach Project' will create, deliver and co-ordinate online content to keep existing audiences engaged while they are unable to visit Museum & Tasglann nan Eilean venues due to COVID-19 restrictions and attract new audiences to engage with our heritage and collections when we fully reopen.

Alongside existing methods of engagement we want to investigate new, and experimental, methods of digital delivery to give people enhanced access to the collections, which - as public collections - are held in trust for the whole community.

The Project Officer will also work to gather material for a future exhibition focused on the Outer Hebrides perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic so that it is not lost and will be a resource for future generations.

Alongside promoting the collections at our two accredited museums they will deliver digital training to the network of local independent museums and Comainn Eachdraidh to help them develop their own online offering and gain new digital skills.

The new Project Officer, Shona MacLellan, has moved over from the Dualchas na Mara project when it ended and took up her new role on 13 January. 

"I am looking forward to starting a new project this year to explore the opportunities digital heritage provides and to share more of the wonderful museum and archive collections to a wider audience. I am also interested in recording how COVID-19 has affected the islands and people's experience of it."

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Notes for editors:

For information about the Art Fund click here .

Contact Shona MacLellan (Project Officer):  shona.maclellan@cne-siar.gov.uk