Summary

Funded through a Museums Galleries Scotland Museums Development Fund grant, the Scottish Maritime Museum worked alongside an intergenerational group from the local Irvine area to create an informative and inspiring exhibition exploring marine pollution and its impact on the climate emergency. With additional support from Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Our Heritage, Our Future programme the group learned more about the climate crisis and our impact on our planet. The input from this intergenerational group has had a lasting impact on the Museum with the climate emergency and environmental sustainability now included in the Museum’s business strategy.

Background

Trashion started with a Community Ideas Session held with the Irvine Senior’s Forum in July 2024. These Community Ideas Sessions were part of a larger community engagement programme at the Museum looking to increase the participation of different groups through providing opportunities to take part in creative health focussed workshops and the creation of community co-produced exhibitions. This was in recognition of local priorities in the North Ayrshire Local Authority area which focusses on community wellbeing & resilience and climate change & sustainability. Part of the discussion had with the community focussed on engagement with the Museum and the desire from the Senior’s Forum to help encourage younger members of the local community to get involved with their local heritage in a way that felt relevant to them. After further conversations with members of the Senior’s Forum it was decided we should reach out to the Irvine Youth Legacy Centre, a local charity focussed on providing opportunities for social engagement and mental health support for young people aged 11-25 in the local area. It was also decided that the aim of this engagement would be to support the Museum’s plans for World Ocean Day in 2025 and that anything the intergenerational group created would be focussed on ocean protection and conservation using local heritage as inspiration for the stories they would tell.

Challenge

Using existing museum visitor feedback data, we know that less than 5% of Museum visitors are aged 16-25. The challenge for the community engagement programme was to develop engaging activities that would not only encourage young people to visit the Museum but to also provide them with opportunities to feel empowered to make decisions about what they wanted to contribute and share with other museum visitors. The “Trashion” project had an additional challenge of bringing a group of people together of different generations and finding a way to work together on creative activities that would be of interest to everyone. All this work also needed to fit with local priorities and show value in helping with participants health and wellbeing.

Approach

The idea for an intergenerational project came from the Irvine Seniors’ Forum after they attended a Community Ideas Session at the Museum in July 2024. They were keen to explore local heritage and thought it would be a richer experience if there could be a young person’s perspective included too. The Museum was already beginning to form plans for World Ocean Day celebrations in 2025 and so it was offered to the Senior’s Forum that we worked together on an intergenerational project that looked at local heritage through the lens of the climate emergency and ocean conservation.

To engage young people with the project it was decided that we would reach out to an already established group who would be able to support their young people with taking part in activities with the Museum. The Irvine Youth Legacy Forum are a well-established youth organisation in Irvine who use dynamic governance principles to give their young people a clear voice in how the service is run. As none of the young people had been inside the Museum before (or for a long time), it was decided that the introductory session would be held in their youth centre space and we would use it as a “getting to know you” opportunity with ice breaker games rather than jumping straight into talking about the Museum or local heritage. The first session was also used to set boundaries for the group to make sure everyone was comfortable being involved. The group worked together and created a set of group rules which were displayed during all following workshops.

All following sessions were held at the Museum and the whole group were consulted on the timing of sessions, what they wanted to look at and what food they wanted to be available. As the young people had not been to the Museum before we held another Community Ideas Session for the whole group, but with more of a focus on the environment and objects in the collection that could be used to explore climate and marine pollution issues.

A voting system was used to narrow down the group’s ideas to a single theme that they would focus on for their exhibition. And a visual plan was used to help keep the group on track. The Museum’s community engagement officer also reached out to environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful for some support with education around the climate emergency. The group signed up to be part of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Our Heritage, Our Future programme (funded by Historic Environment Scotland the National Lottery Heritage Fund) for further support with their climate emergency understanding and for gaining a SVQ Level 3 qualification in building a heritage and climate exhibition.

The group worked together to create the items for display in the exhibition, with everyone empowered to try something new and explore their own creativity. It was also important that the whole group were involved with every step of the exhibition creation, so they also took the lead in setting up the exhibition when it was ready. They also helped take the exhibition down again.

Intended Outcome

In line with the Museum’s community engagement programme ethos, the intended outcomes of this project were as follows:

• To provide an opportunity for an intergenerational group of people to work together and learn about local heritage and the climate emergency.
• To provide an opportunity for the group to co-produce an exhibition using creative mediums and techniques that they were most interested in.
• To provide an opportunity for the group to share the stories that were most important to them with regards to climate change and marine pollution.
• To provide an opportunity for members of the group to gain an accredited qualification. This was particularly important for the young people as they navigated their next steps after leaving school.
• To provide an opportunity for participants to improve their mental health and wellbeing, in line with the local authority priorities.
• To build long-lasting relationships with a diverse group of people from the local community who would champion the community engagement opportunities at the Museum after having a positive experience with the programme.

Obstacles and Issues

The Trashion project wasn’t always smooth sailing. There were issues encountered along the way, but the flexible nature of co-production meant that we were able to overcome most of them as a group. Most of the issues we encountered were around the timing of workshops. We were able to work around most of the timing issues, but it is unfortunately something we will encounter again with any future intergenerational project unless it is run out of school term time or is run as part of a school activity.

One surprising issue we encountered was how anxious some of the group members were at being given creative control of the project. For some participants to feel comfortable taking part they needed to be given a job to work on. This at times felt against the co-production ethos, but eventually, as confidence was building those participants started to feel more comfortable making their own creative decisions.

The group were also keen on hosting a “Trashion” show to showcase their creative pieces. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be possible to wear any of the outfits on the mannequins because of the way they were constructed. To combat this issue, the Museum hosted Trashion workshops as part of the Museum’s summer engagement programme, which allowed more people to engage with the exhibition and create their own Trashion items which were showcased in a Trashion Show at the end of the summer.

Actual Outcomes

An intergenerational group made up of 20 members from the local community ranging in age from 15 to 70+ years engaged with the Museum over a period of 8 months (over 500 community participation hours) to create a co-produced exhibition and subsequent fashion show all about the climate emergency and marine pollution. The group used objects and stories from the Museum’s collection as inspiration and created fashion pieces made from reclaimed and recycled materials. Everything in the exhibition was made using reclaimed or recycled materials, including the plinth that the mannequins were placed on that was made, by the Museum’s engineering volunteers, from an old pallet and leftover plywood. Ayrshire Film Company documented the co-production of the Trashion Project, and attended several of the creative workshops, which resulted in the creation of a six-minute-long film that was on display alongside the exhibition (and is now viewable on the Museum’s YouTube channel).

The group worked with Keep Scotland Beautiful and their Our Heritage, Our Future programme to learn more about the climate emergency, taking part in climate emergency training and completing all necessary modules to earn level 3 SVQ qualifications in Creating a heritage and Climate exhibition. The group participants were also surprised at the end of summer “Trashion Show” with Archaeology Scotland Heritage Hero awards ranging from Detective Level up to a Gold Award.

“Gaining a qualification was an important part for me as a young person. Also feeling a part of something.”

The exhibition opened on World Ocean Day weekend as part of a bigger event at the Museum called “Dive-In”, which was all about sustainability and taking action for our planet. Visitors at the event were asked to make pledges to reduce their own personal impact on the planet and sign the Agency of World Change Register (which the Museum is a licensed member of).

“Thrilled people will be getting to see ‘Trashion’ over the summer as it’s an amazing outcome. It’s also brought the museum more onto my radar and opened my eyes to different possibilities for community engagement.”

Some of the group helped run the summer Trashion workshops, providing information on the climate emergency and local heritage to help encourage and inspire the workshop participants to create their fashion accessories. They also created additional fashion accessories, which they wore with pride during the Trashion Show at the end of the summer.

All the participants commented that the project was fun, and they were proud of what they had created together. Many of the participants visited the exhibition on multiple occasions to show off their work to their friends and family. Many of the participants also made climate pledges to look at their own habits and to make changes for the benefit of our oceans and planets.

“I feel proud to been part of the project. It is a privilege to come to the Maritime Museum which is a great venue. I will visit more regularly and recommend to others.”

“I also did a pledge to take shorter showers and so far, I have managed it. So, I’m very happy and I’m going to do more to help the environment”

Feedback from visitors to their exhibition was that it was “inspiring”, “thought-provoking” and “creative”. Some visitor comments also noted that it had encouraged them to think about their own habits for protecting our climate. The exhibition was on display in the Linthouse Building of the Scottish Maritime Museum from June till August 2025. The animal heads on the mannequins, the protest banners, the axolotl hood and starfish hat are being accessioned into the Museum’s contemporary collection as part of the legacy of this project. The legacy of the project has also encouraged further conversations with Keep Scotland Beautiful to hopefully help create a community co-produced Heritage and Climate Action Plan for the Museum. It is hoped that many members of the Trashion project and some other members of the local community will contribute to this action plan.

The Museum’s community engagement programme uses co-production and creative health principles to create a person-centred, inclusive and safe space for participants to feel confident and empowered to share the stories that matter to them. Feedback from the Trashion project was collated creatively using zines and demonstrated that the engagement approach taken, increased participants confidence in their own abilities, reduced anxiety in trying new things, created a stronger sense of connection to the local area & to new people and provided a new understanding of the Museum as a community space.

“I feel like I belong in the Museum. I feel like we have lots of fun and we learn new things. We can share our thoughts and talk out loud. We now know how to help with pollution and recycle.”

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned from the Trashion project and the ongoing community engagement programme were as follows:

• Partnership working with both the community organisations involved and Keep Scotland Beautiful was invaluable to ensuring decision-making was shared. Having Keep Scotland Beautiful involved in the project provided a rich new dynamic to the creative process and made sure that the messages that were being shared were grounded in climate issues felt across Scotland and their impact globally.
• Having access to training opportunities (in this case through the GEM/CHWA Working Together project) helped build confidence in providing a safe and inclusive environment for everyone to work together and create such an impactful outcome.
• Working with community requires a lot of flexibility which can create added pressures on staff capacity. Including funds for transport or eve considering using community spaces away from the Museum may help alleviate some of those additional pressures.
• Don’t expect everyone to understand co-production straightaway. Being given more control in the decision making can be quite a new experience for some participants and it takes time to trust the process. Use visual plans and set smaller intermediate goals to help reduce anxiety. Some groups prefer to have jobs to do instead of having endless creative choices to make.

“I feel like it took us a wee while to get started, but once we did, we couldn’t get enough of it”

• Food was incredibly important to this group. Make sure time to eat is accounted for when timetabling sessions so that creative time isn’t lost.
• The Museum needs to do better at providing signposting to other opportunities that the community members could engage with in the Museum setting (volunteering opportunities, etc) or elsewhere in the local area.

Next Steps

The Museum is continuing to develop its community engagement programme, which will always include co-production and creative health principles. The learnings from this project and previous engagement projects will continue to influence the evolution of the programme with its flexible approach and time built in for trust building.

Conversations are ongoing with Keep Scotland Beautiful to develop a community co-produced climate and heritage action plan, and the hope is that members of the Trashion group will choose to be involved in developing this.

The Museum is now also looking to create a Community Action Group with recommendations from the group taken to the Board of Trustees to be acted on for the benefit of the local community and the Museum. The terms of reference for the Community Action Group have been approved by the Board of Trustees and planned recruitment to the group is due to commence in 2026.

The community engagement officer role has now been made a permanent part-time position at the Museum and they are continuing to compile a list of other engagement opportunities in the local Irvine area that community members can be signposted to once workshops at the museum are finished. The ideal scenario would be to be able to offer ongoing engagement opportunities at the Museum, but that requires ongoing investment and funding which is being actively pursued. The hope is that case studies like this and evidence from community participants will help the Museum secure funding to keep the valued co-production and creative health programme running into the future.

Find out more

To find out more about co-production at the Scottish Maritime Museum, please email communities@scotmaritime.org.uk 

You can find out more about Irvine Youth Legacy Centre here.

Irvine Senior’s Forum meet on the last Tuesday of the month from 1:30-3:30pm in Vennel Gardens, East Road Irvine KA12 0BQ

The Trashion project was gratefully funded by Museums Galleries Scotland through a Museums Development Grant.

The project was also supported by Keep Scotland Beautiful and their Our Heritage, Our Future programme. Our Heritage, Our Future is made possible with Historic Environment Scotland and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.