National Museum of Scotland

Nearly two million visitors a year will pass through the new permanent galleries of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. This article reflects on the planning and collecting that presaged their redevelopment in the context of twenty-first century museum practice in the UK. We focus in particular on two elements: firstly, the fundamental project management work that underpins any development of this kind. Were established methodologies and practices conducive to open-ended, outcomes-based objectives such as research? Secondly, we ask this question specifically in relation to contemporary collecting in art, and in science. How can the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns of contemporary collecting be mainstreamed in project management workflows? What boundaries endure in museum processes and products?

"This brief, written by Chris Whitehead, Rhiannon Mason, Susannah Eckersley and Katherine Lloyd is an output of Newcastle University's contribution to the EU funded project 'Mela: European Museums in an Age of Migrations:
www.mela-project.eu

'Museums & Identity in History and Contemporaneity', explores the roles that museums can play in representing migration, migrants and diversity in order to develop egalitarian social relations. The brief is intended to guide cultural policy and museum practice in the EU."