Case studies
Recent collaborative projects include:
- Digital integration
- Institutional legacies in collections
- Toxic pigments in historic bookbindings
- Widening participation
- Behavioural change
- Artist residencies
Digital integration
Our work on digital integration and exploring the potential for blended in-person and digital experiences began in 2021.
The first phase of the project asked:
- How do you ensure colonial narratives about collections aren’t silenced in contexts where this isn’t the only story an object has to tell?
- How do communities want to engage with these narratives and be represented in heritage spaces?
With a focus on digital technologies like virtual and augmented reality, the Smartify app, and the Exhibit tool, we examined the efficacy of these approaches in exploring hidden colonial narratives in collections with community groups.
Read more about the findings from this phase of the project.
The next phase of work will focus on in-gallery interventions using the Exhibit tool. We’re exploring Scottish Objects and Spaces of Encounter in 2024.
Institutional legacies in collections
University Collections and Museums are working towards establishing the provenance of objects in their collections, to tackle institutional legacies and move towards a more equitable future.
The first phases of this work have examined the early Museum collection, acquired in the 19th century, with a focus on:
- Natural history
- Anatomy and pathology
- Ethnographic collections
This work allows us to improve stewardship of and access to our collections, and make connections with originating communities. The team is busy making ongoing provenance research accessible through the Collections search.
Revealing the colours of the covers - identifying toxic pigments in historic bookbindings
Since 2022, Dr Pilar Gil of University Collections has been conducting research into the detection of arsenic-based green pigments in 19th century bindings.
The research started with the aim of identifying books in University Collections’ holdings which are coloured with emerald green pigment. Copper acetoarsenite or emerald green coloured bookcloth tends to crumble easily and it presents a risk of arsenic exposure through inhalation, absorption or ingestion of pigment particles.
The research, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, identified a distinctive spectral fingerprint of the emerald green pigment in visible light. This finding serves as the foundation for the development of accessible and cost-effective devices that could be utilised in libraries around the world to detect the toxic pigment. For example, a handheld emerald green detector currently under development at the University of St Andrews.
Ongoing research is directed at the identification of other arsenical pigments in book bindings and the characterisation of the range of toxic elements present in book cloth from this historical period.
Widening participation
University Collections and Museums support the University's Widening Participation team by delivering sessions for their First Chances and Summer Schools programmes.
Themes explored recently:
- Build-your-own flying machine competitions inspired by the natural history collections
- explorations of empire legacies
- University life and traditions
Museums also work independently to support audiences who are underrepresented at university to build the skills and confidence necessary to enable and encourage applications. Among these initiatives, the annual Common Ground scheme unites migrants studying English for Speakers of Other Languages with secondary school pupils to explore cultural connections over the course of a year.
Behavioural change and encouraging sustainable lifestyle choices
Museums in the UK are raising awareness about climate change and changing people's attitudes towards sustainability. University Collections and Museums seek to go beyond this, actively researching how exhibitions can result in behavioural change, encouraging visitors to make sustainable lifestyle choices.
Through a series of temporary exhibitions, the team have experimented and extensively evaluated different approaches to encouraging behavioural change. This knowledge can be shared across the sector and is used in various projects to enhance impact for the researchers who work with the University’s museums.
Artist residencies responding to University collections
We have worked with high-profile, internationally acclaimed artists on residencies that respond to our collections. Our artist residencies are part of the Boswell Collection of Scottish Art.
These residencies have produced a variety of media including sculpture and print, and have proved vital in tackling institutional legacies and making the collections more representative of our diverse communities.
Artists we have worked with include Alberta Whittle, Ilana Halperin and Ingrid Pollard. Artists receive a fee, get access to curatorial expertise and collections material, and their work is added to the University’s collections.
