Our community conversations start with rubber ducks and lots of tea and biscuits.
Why rubber ducks, you might ask? Imagine yourself visiting a new, unfamiliar space, with new people you might never have met before and being asked to participate in a workshop about something you maybe don’t know much about. Are you comfortable or possibly a bit anxious?
The rubber ducks are a tool. They are something immediately familiar to most, in a space that might not be. They are silly and playful, and we use them to help people slow down and really look around our spaces and collections. We set the challenge “can you take your duck on an adventure to somewhere in the Museum that you feel most connected to? Can you give your duck a name?” When we come back together, we talk about those names and places and slowly open the conversations about connection and those themes that are of the most interest. The rubber ducks reduce the often-implied formality of a museum and help with encouraging conversation, sharing of ideas and help relieve some of the anxieties often felt by people who wouldn’t normally see a museum as a space for them.
In early 2025, at the Denny Ship Model Experimental Tank, part of the Scottish Maritime Museum, we invited service users of the local drug and alcohol recovery services to join us for conversations about the social history of the shipyards and to consider contributing to an exhibition on the subject. We ate biscuits, drank tea and explored with our rubber ducks and quickly settled on the idea of sharing some of the less told stories through the medium of stained glass. Facts about the Denny Tank being referred to as the “mother tank” or that there was a pigeon cote in the loft of the drawing office struck a chord with some participants, while others were interested in the social gatherings organised for shipyard staff. They were keen to try something new and wanted to create a legacy for the community and the Museum that could be shared for many years to come.
With community engagement funding from Museums Galleries Scotland, we were able to develop this idea and work with experienced stained glass artist Eilidh MacKenzie. Over a period of 11 weeks the group worked together, learning new skills in design and stained glass preparation and together created a stained glass panel that represents the social history of the Denny’s shipyard and the local community shaped by that industry. The finished artwork featured in a wider exhibition about the social history of the shipyard and is now on permanent display at the Denny Tank.
The health and wellbeing of all involved was integral to the success of the project. Those who chose to participate wouldn’t normally have engaged with Museums or their local heritage, so making everyone feel welcome and safe was vitally important. Using creative health and co-production methodologies to develop ideas helped create a sense of shared ownership and empowerment within the group. Being trusted to make decisions and to support one and other through the learning of new skills helped to create more confidence in the participants and a feeling of pride in the legacy they had created together. One participant said:
I enjoyed every moment of the workshop and made new friends as well as learning new skills. My confidence and sense of purpose and achievement have soared.
The project has created longer-lasting community connections to the Museum and the heritage of the place, including sending “mother tank” water samples to America, to ‘christen’ a cutting-edge testing tank, and digitising “The Arkivz” scrapbook to allow for better access to the collection. The health and wellbeing focus of this project and the wider community engagement programme at the Scottish Maritime Museum have helped reduce barriers to engagement with heritage and encouraged those who wouldn’t have visited a museum before to give it a try. Working with community in a way that is welcoming and safe has created opportunities to explore the Museum’s collection in new exciting ways, making the Museum a more vibrant place to visit.
If you would like to learn more about the Denny Social Stained-Glass Project there is a video available on Youtube:
