You join us at a rather tense moment, those few hours before our programme of events kicks off across the weekend. I really hope this weather won’t put people off coming out to join us for Festival of Museums!
Festival of Museums is a weekend dedicated to putting on lovely, exciting events across museums in Scotland. So with us, we decided to go down the route of campaigners from East Lothian’s past. Tonight we have Elsie Inglis and Catherine Blair appearing in the John Gray Centre to tell visitors about their lives, and to take them on a Suffragette march. We had a great time a few weeks ago doing a photoshoot to promote the event. It was the day after the Council elections and one man, seeing us posing in the street with our Votes for Women sign, shouted “Typical women, always late, elections were yesterday!”. Ahh, you can’t beat a bit of public interaction!
On Saturday it’s the turn of our museums in Dunbar as John Muir and Black Agnes both get visitors involved in their campaigns. As you’ll probably know, John Muir campaigned on environmental issues, long before it was popular. Black Agnes defended Dunbar Castle without her husband there, a rare achievement for a woman in the 1300s! I particularly can’t wait to see Black Agnes in the Town House, as there will also be a ‘ghost’ played by a storyteller who is out to get Black Agnes, and may surprise a few visitors by using some of the hidden stairwells in the building.
Then on Sunday, we head west, as Musselburgh and Prestongrange museums both host different characters. At Prestongrange, two miners will be on hand to talk visitors through their lives and encourage them to come on strike with them. I dropped off a tin bath yesterday to Prestongrange and you’ll need to come along to find out what that’s all about! Our two fantastic work experience students Jenna and Renata have also come up with some miners games which will let children test out if they have mining skills. In Musselburgh, it’s an exciting time as the new exhibition on Musselburgh’s Royal connections opens on Sunday, at the same time as two of Mary Queen of Scots’ maids pop up to give us the gossip on the most famous beheaded Queen of all time! Having met the maids before, I actually can’t wait to hear them again – very funny and very argumentative!
Download the leaflet here incase you fancy coming along! All events are free.