The broad educational aim of the National Galleries of Scotland is to enhance the visitor’s experience by providing different ways of learning about the National art collection. The Galleries actively seeks to engage audiences such as children, families, students, teachers, adults and community groups with varying levels of interest and knowledge about art and its history.

The Playfair project, which was a major capital development, offered new opportunities to expand and diversify our educational activities. It incorporated two state-of-the-art educational studios and a 200 seat lecture theatre. Current education programmes include guided tours tailored specially to the new Curriculum for Excellence, gallery talks interpreted in British Sign Language, innovative outreach projects and scholarly symposia.

In addition to funding for particular projects, the Galleries benefits greatly from general support for its education programme. This allows us to allocate funding towards those educational initiatives most in need of private support during a particular fiscal year.

Education Programme for People Who are Visually Impaired
Trusts and foundations are invited to support particular education programmes with specific aims, such as the National Galleries of Scotland’s Education Programme for People Who are Visually Impaired.

During 2005-06 and 2006-07, the Miss Agnes H. Hunter’s Trust contributed towards the provision of a high-quality programme of descriptive tours and practical workshops at the Galleries for visually impaired people. This support allows us to conduct specialised gallery tours for small groups of people and to provide well-resourced workshops led by practicing artists, both of which help to create a positive learning environment for our visually impaired visitors. We first initiated an education programme for people who are visually impaired in 2002. Now one of the most successful programmes of its kind operating within British museums and galleries, it continuously incorporates new ways to enable visually impaired visitors to explore art.

Securing additional funding is vital in order to continue such innovative work.