Wardlaw Museum

Wed, Nov 17th 2021 at 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm

Katie Eagleton Director of Libraries and Museums at St Andrews University.

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Dr Katie Eagleton, the University’s Director of Libraries and Museums, began her talk, entitled ‘Reimagining the University’s Museums’, by emphasising the synergy between museum and visitor: both contribute to the story being told. The Library was home to the University’s first museum, before the St Andrews Literary and Philosophical Society, a collaboration between town and gown, established a proper museum in Upper College Hall in 1838. The collection was later dispersed to different parts of the University before much of it was brought together again, in 2008, in a building on The Scores. Renamed the ‘Wardlaw Museum’, after the building was extended, it was due to reopen in April 2020, when the pandemic forced a postponement until June of this year. Even though the reopening happened quietly, without ceremony, it is already a great success, with 100 per cent of its 3,000 visitors confirming that they would recommend it to others. The exhibition space has been reimagined as well as extended, with four thematic galleries. Scotland’s First University portrays not just its history but also its distinctive identity; Enquiring Minds shows how both the arts and the sciences enable us to see things differently; Reformers and Innovators illustrates the transformative power of an idea, be it the Reformation or photography; Expanding Horizons demonstrates the University’s global reach. Two temporary exhibitions, Dive In, about protecting our oceans, and The Pit and the Kit, about the end of coalmining, both show how museums can help us to think in new ways. Dr Eagleton concluded her talk by inviting members of the Rotary Club to come and see for themselves.

Katie is also a board member of Fife Cultural Trust.

Following her PhD at Cambridge, Katie became a curator in the British Museum.

In 2018 Katie was a Fellow on the Getty Leadership Institute programme for cultural leadership in the USA.