Honours for local museums
HIGHLANES Gallery and Drogheda Museum Millmount have been recognised by the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MPSI) for their work in collection care, governance, and visitor care and access.
Highlanes Gallery was awarded Full Accreditation with the MPSI for the first time, while Drogheda Museum Millmount retained the Full Accreditation it had been previously awarded.
The programme which started in 2006 with just 12 participants, now has 57 museums across the island of Ireland, participating in it.
Highlanes Gallery is located in the former Drogheda Franciscan Church and part of the Friary; known locally as the ‘High Lane Church’.
The assessors said: ‘ The team at the Highlanes Gallery has acted on the findings of the previous assessment visits, and has submitted a very detailed and comprehensive application, which addresses issues raised, and as a result the team has achieved Full Accreditation’.
Drogheda Museum Millmount was the first volunteer run museum to achieve Full Accreditation in the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland.
Its Assessor commented: ‘ The Museum’s impressive education and community engagement activities continue to be central to the ethos of the Museum and a real strength of the organisation.
‘ The range of formal and informal activities provides levels of access to the Museum’s collections and to the history of the town that many other museums aspire to.
‘The Museum is to be congratulated on the commitment shown this year with the development of the new log-books to improve rigor in areas requiring systematic checking; the work started on the condition audit; and on the recent significant levels of work on the accessioning of the artefact collection.’