Museums and Collections

Glasgow Life Museums cares for one of Europe’s leading civic collections, encompassing more than five million museum objects, archive records and library special collections. In 2025/26, our museums welcomed 3.9 million visitors.

Nationally and internationally significant, our museums play a vital role in Scotland’s cultural life and visitor economy. They also provide free, trusted public spaces that support learning, wellbeing and inclusion for people of all ages.

A major project in 2025/26 was the redisplay of the Glassford Portrait at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. This marked a significant shift in interpreting Glasgow’s history, refocussing attention on a young Black child enslaved by tobacco merchant John Glassford and using digital interpretation in 11 languages to deepen our understanding of the city’s slavery links.

Award wins, pop-culture, public engagement and learning

The Burrell Collection continued its award-winning run, receiving three major accolades in 2025. The museum was named Best Large Museum at the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Awards, while also collecting a silver prize at the Design Business Association (DBA) Design Effectiveness Awards.

Caroline Currie, our Learning and Access Curator, received the People’s Hero Award at the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions (ASVA) Awards in recognition of her outstanding work with local communities and commitment to inclusive access.

At Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, our Fragile Art space showcased nine new works from The Morag McAlpine Bequest; a significant gift to Glasgow Life Museums from acclaimed Glaswegian artist Alasdair Gray following the death of his wife, Morag McAlpine.

Meanwhile, our Retro Reels exhibition at Riverside Museum was a hit with audiences young and old, showcasing the props and stories that shaped a generation of 1980s pop-culture from Star Wars to Back to the Future.

As renovation work continued at the People's Palace and Winter Gardens, we launched two touring exhibitions as part of the city’s Glasgow 850 programme. These continued to provide public access to parts of the Palace’s unique social history collection while the museum is temporarily closed. 

Both displays visited more than 20 city venues, including museums, libraries and community centres, and were enjoyed by thousands of residents, visitors and schoolchildren between June and December 2025.

Throughout the year, we continued to inspire learners through a dynamic programme of workshops, events and educational activity. In 2025/26, our learning programmes attracted more than 89,000 attendances, including nearly 42,000 educational group visitors.

A standout initiative was the launch of our ongoing Open Minds Project, delivered with Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH) and the Creative Minds Fund. Led by our Learning and Engagement team and artist Rosie Priest, the project connected more than 120 adults experiencing mental health issues with Glasgow’s collections through 14 creative workshops at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and The Kelvin Hall. 

Sessions helped participants reduce isolation, ease anxiety and build community connections. At the same time, almost 120 of our museums staff received mental health awareness training as part of the project.

Behind the scenes, our conservation and collections teams managed more than 100,000 object moves during the year. Highlights included the restoration of the Dunlop Family Portrait frame, offering audiences a rare insight into our conservation work.

We launched a new community display created with blind and partially sighted people at The Kelvin Hall. Your Stories: How We Used to Use Things, developed with RNIB Scotland, brought together objects from the city’s collection with personal stories from community curators. 

Through workshops, participants selected items that reflected their lived experience. The display featured a variety of items, from a record player and chess set, to a guide dog lead, talking calculator and braille tools.