September 2008 Heritage Feature: Launch of Show Scotland 2009

After three years, Show Scotland continues to grow audiences over the May bank holiday weekend and provides museums and galleries with an opportunity to be creative, innovative and daring with their collections or venue space. Some of the amazing statistics are details below.

Overall visitor figures for the weekend have significantly increased with 65,719 visits made to participating venues - a 36% increase on 2007

Visitors feel the events enliven museums, appeal to all ages and engage audiences more deeply
Feedback from visitors on the events was extremely positive, receiving 99% satisfaction
Participating organisations reported that Show Scotland 2008 raised the profile of museums and galleries, enhanced creativity, increased capacity for events, developed staff skills, cemented existing partnership and inspired new ones
The number of opportunities to see the Show Scotland message was an amazing 11,262,930 through press coverage and 27,547,737 through marketing acvtivity - a total of 38,810,667 opportunities to see.

If you would like copies of the full evaluations,

email showscotland@museumsgalleriesscotlan d.org.uk

Responding to the feedback from museums and galleries in the 2008 evaluation MGS have brought forward the application deadline for the 2009 grants. The deadline is 14 November. The earlier dates will have multiple benefits allowing you more time to plan and promote your event.

The Show Scotland 2009 small grant guidelines and application form are available from the Museums Galleries Scotland website.