AHRC funded ‘Romantic Scotland’ Project

The end of October saw the conclusion of the AHRC funded ‘Romantic Scotland’ Project. Working with Historic Environment Scotland (classed as an Independent Research Organisation) and colleagues at Bath, Edinburgh and Xin’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Professor Michael Silk formed part of the research team that sought visitor experiences of Scotland through the Romantic Scotland Exhibition that debuted at Nanjing museum earlier this year. The exhibition saw over 100,000 visitors.

Using an array of methodologies—ranging from development of a tracking up, to a video booth, to a graffiti wall, to ‘postcards’ to Scotland–the research team collated and analysed over 10,000 individual data instances. A resultant stakeholder report was launched at Edinburgh Castle and the Tate (London) in October 2018. Attendees included those from the creative, museum, tourism, and heritage sectors from both the UK and China; we are already gathering evidence with regard to how the research will change policy and practice within these sectors!

The research has provided the focus for visits and workshops in Nanjing organised by Visit Scotland and Scottish Enterprise; has been presented to senior UK and China government ministers at events in Shanghai and London; features on the coverof the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s publication A Decade of Success; has inspired a spin-of  knowledge exchange workshop on heritage tourism hosted by the Suzhou Municipal Administration of Tourism; and has been discussed at a number of UK-based and international conferences, seminars and workshops.

To download the full report, visit:

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=7a349db2-9cb0-46c5-8da5-a97d00863f89

And for a blog from HES during the week of the launch events (including a fascinating video drawn from the data (a snippet of the 6000 video booth responses) that demonstrates Chinese understandings of Scotland based on the exhibition visit here:

https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2018/10/romantic-scotland-insights/