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Museum artefactsArts, Museums and Heritage

Welcome to the Arts, Museums and Heritage Service webpages. We hope you find these pages useful, and look forward to welcoming you to our sites. All pages can be accessed from the 'More pages in this section' menu.

Working within Education, Leisure and Housing, the Arts, Museums and Heritage Service provides museums, heritage development and arts development services in and for Orkney.

The Service directly manages four local museums, three visitor centres, St Magnus Cathedral and 17 interpreted sites and was awarded Museums Accreditation in 2008.  The Archaeology Collection has been recognised for its national significance through the Scottish Government’s National Recognition Scheme.

In addition to managing its own sites and facilities, the service also provides training, curatorial and financial support to local museums and visitor centres, advocacy and strategic development within the public sector and supports local sector exhibition development as well as offering a full and wide ranging temporary exhibition programme within Orkney Museum.

If you would like to receive information about Training, Funding and Events, please email us and ask to be added to the mailing list.

Aim of the Service

The safeguarding, collecting, preserving, conserving and interpretation of Orkney’s Heritage.

Objectives

  • Safeguarding Orkney’s heritage, including artefacts, historic buildings, archaeological sites and local tales, traditions and memories for present and future generations, building working relationships with other individuals and organisations to support this;
  • Encouraging the use of sustainable heritage related tourism as an economic boost to Orkney generally and especially to fragile communities;
  • Contributing to community well-being through underpinning communities’ sense of place and history whilst recognising the uniqueness of each island and each community;
  • Supporting and encouraging research on all aspects of Orkney’s heritage;
  • Informing and educating residents and visitors about the heritage of Orkney, including a positive contribution to community learning;
  • Improving access to Orkney’s heritage for those disadvantaged through disability, income or geographical remoteness and acting as an advocate for Orkney abroad, through responding to the demonstrated interest in Orkney’s heritage.

Further Information

Additional information on the service is available from the Related Links Section of the page and is also available on the Orkney Arts, Museums and Heritage Facebook page, a link to which is available from the Related Sites sections of the page.

There is also a site for all Orkney Museums

Alternatively, you can email Arts, Museums and Heritage.