Marsh Award for Innovation in Conservation
This award recognises individual, department or organisation-led innovation in conservation practice, research or training. Innovation can take any form but should demonstrate new ways of thinking or working that are moving the practice of conservation forward.
Industrial Museums Scotland 2024
The ‘Powering Our People’ project was designed to address the gap in heritage conservation skills and knowledge in Scotland’s industrial museums through a programme of targeted skills development training courses and the creation of a conservation internship. 15 museums joined the project, creating a dynamic conservation legacy which will secure the future of these collections and the protection of them. Industrial conservation specialists designed hands-on training workshops that responded to the technical nature of items within these collections, including the conservation of intricate engines. These workshops have created a resource of trained and empowered museum staff and volunteers who feel confident to protect these collections for years to come and have also encouraged new staff members to engage with conservation as soon as they join their museum. The project also created a conservation internship across the 15 sites, allowing an early-career conservator the opportunity to gain experience on a wide variety of collections. This also helped to improve public awareness of conservation at the museums as the intern documented their experiences online. This innovative collaboration across a varied range of collections is the first of its kind and has created a model of how to bridge gaps in conservation knowledge.