Our Next Event 30/01/2024

ABOUR THE PAPER

We are very excited to host Dr. Pauline MacKay (University of Glasgow), David Hopes (Ellisland Trust), and William Napier (National Trust for Scotland) in their delivery of The Barnbougle papers and the conservation and interpretation of Burns's Ellisland . Come join us to hear more!

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr David Hopes is Head of Service for Leeds Museums & Galleries. David was formerly Head of Interiors and Collections for the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) from 2016-2021 and, previous to this, Director of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway (also part of the NTS). He has over 20 years’ experience as a curator working on a range of initiatives from the Open Museum’s Pollok Kist Project to new-build capital projects such as MUSA (now the Wardlaw Museum, University of St Andrews) and Robert Burns Birthplace Museum (shortlisted for the Museum of the Year Prize, 2011). David is a member of the Recognition Committee and the UK Accreditation Committee, and a trustee of Robert Burns Ellisland Trust and the Leeds Art Fund. Research interests include digital humanities, the subject of a research fellowship with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham), Burns and literary material culture, and relevance in historic house museums.

Pauline is Director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies and Head of Subject for Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. She is the Chair of Burns Scotland: The National Burns Collections held in partnership (recognised by Museums Galleries Scotland). Pauline is Co-I and Co-Editor on the AHRC-funded project, 'Editing Robert Burns's Poetry and Correspondence'. She is currently writing a monograph about Burns’s bawdy song and verse, and her most recent book publication is Burns for Every Day of the Year. Pauline’s research interests extend to Burns’s legacy and cultural commemoration, particularly through material culture, location and digital resources. In 2023 Pauline was awarded the English Association’s Fellows Award for her use of XR (extended reality) technology to explore and illuminate Robert Burns’s literary and cultural legacy. She has shared this work with a global audience of over 3000 learners through innovative launch events, wide-reaching presentations, and in her teaching at the University of Glasgow. Pauline now collaborates (as a Co-Investigator) with colleagues from the University of Glasgow’s ARC-XR project board, together with industry and Culture and Heritage partners, on the £5.6 million Levelling Up Innovation Accelerator project to develop a ‘Museums in the Metaverse’ platform.

William Napier is a conservation accredited Chartered Building Surveyor, architectural historian and decorative plasterer, with over thirty years’ experience working on historic buildings. He has worked with Historic Scotland, the Scottish Lime Centre and the National Trust for Scotland, and is now a director with Adams Napier Partnership specialising in building conservation and heritage consultancy. William has delivered and managed conservation projects at General Register House, Craigievar Castle, Fisher’s Tower, Falkland Palace and Abbot House, Dunfermline and has researched and written conservation planning documentation for Darnick Tower, Robert Burns’ Ellisland

Farm, Kellie Castle, Dunnottar Castle, Scatness Broch, The Hill House and Castletown Mill. His Ph.D, ‘Kinship and Politics in the Art of Decoration', is a study of Scottish decorative plasterwork and has contributed to research which will be used to inform plaster conservation guidance for Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland. Current research interests includes historic plaster mixes, vernacular buildings and lime production in upper Nithsdale, the history of Midhope Castle, and the use of the Nine Worthies in late seventeenth century decorative plasterwork. William is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and an active member of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Building Limes Forum.

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