Behind the scenes

It’s only 9 weeks until Christmas. Bet that scares you more than Hallowe’en! We are planning our Hallowe’en party at Prestongrange Museum at the moment. I delivered a pumpkin for Claire to carve yesterday so I’m waiting to see what wonderful images will appear - perhaps a Beam Engine?!

Jo, Sheila and I went to the Museums Association Conference from the 6th-8th of October. It was held in Liverpool, the current European Capital of Culture, and we were based right at the Albert Docks. The International Slavery Museum gave us lots to consider for our exhibitions planned for 2009 on the same topic. I thought the sections on present day music being influenced by African traditions were really thought-provoking.

It’s also Black History Month at the moment and we’re very proud that in the official BHM magazine, we are listed as one of the only museums in Scotland hosting an events programme. Any of you who attended our talk by Professor Geoff Palmer and Dr David Anderson, called ‘Slavery Past, Prejudice Present’ will agree that it’s a fascinating topic!

I suppose that’s quite a brief summary of what we’ve been up to in the museum service recently, only the highlights really as otherwise I’d be here all night! Happy Hallowe’en….