Live Literature

Comics At Campbeltown Museum

Campbeltown Museum welcomes engagement from primary and secondary schools, offering hands-on learning experiences facilitated by Heritage Learning and Access Coordinator Khara MacPhail. Read below to see how Khara arranges and creates the museum’s outreach programme.

Each year, Khara MacPhail designs and creates activities with authors with the support of the Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature programme, helping to reimagine museum spaces as explorative places for learning where everyone is welcome. In 2024, a creative learning programme was developed at Campbeltown Museum that involved workshops hosted by award-winning author and illustrator duo METAPHROG. Children from Castlehill Primary School and Dalintober Primary School created their comic book page, with the subject matter being an object or theme found in the museum collection. This stimulated creative-based learning and active awareness to increase understanding of local history.

Prior to engaging with the authors, pupils were first invited to explore the museum collection to draw inspiration for their own comics. These were informal sessions with museum staff where questions and discussions with school children flowed naturally, highlighting the curiosity around all aspects of the collection, from minor details in paintings to larger displays of natural history and archaeology.

The work produced by the primary schools has been turned into a comic and is available at the museum. In addition, the 87 pupils involved received a Heritage Hero award, designed for history, heritage, and archaeology projects and accessible to everyone regardless of age, ability, or background.