Museums & Galleries of NSW

Museums of History NSW (MHNSW) and Museums & Galleries of NSW (M&G NSW) have formalised a renewed partnership agreement that will strengthen support for museums and galleries across the state.

The agreement builds on a long and productive history of collaboration between the two organisations and reflects a shared commitment to building the capacity of NSW’s cultural sector, particularly in regional communities.

A key priority for the partnership will be the delivery of the second Volunteer Symposium for Regional and Community-run Museums, in July 2027. The symposium is designed for volunteers working in small- to medium-sized regional and community-run museums and the professionals who support them. The initiative responds directly to priorities identified in the NSW Government’s Heartland plan and will be developed jointly by MHNSW and M&G NSW.

Through this partnership, established in 2023, MHNSW also supports a number of other M&G NSW initiatives, such as the Volunteer Placement Program and the Standards Review Program for small museums. MHNSW will continue to deliver on its statewide mandate to support sector capacity building, increase regional access to its stories and collections and strengthen engagement with communities across NSW.

Read more about our previous regional workshops from 2026.

Storyplace Roadshow 2023–25

In June 2023, we began a partnership with Museums & Galleries of NSW to support its Storyplace Roadshow project.

Storyplace Roadshow is a touring program that focuses on working with regional museum staff, volunteers and collections to develop object-centred stories and associated educational resources for regional museums. MHNSW supported the roadshow by creating instructional videos and running a series of face-to-face workshops on a range of professional development topics, including collection storage, significance assessment and object-based learning.

Between July and September 2024, members of the Regional, Learning and Curatorial teams contributed facilitated workshops in Port Macquarie, Wagga Wagga and Maitland. These sessions supported regional museum staff and volunteers to strengthen their skills in assessing object significance and to develop object-centred stories and learning resources.

Before that, representatives from our Regional, Collections Care, Learning and Curatorial teams visited Tamworth (September 2023), Albury and Alstonville (March 2024), and Bathurst (May 2024) to facilitate workshops on various subjects, including collection housing and storage, developing frameworks for object-based learning activities and establishing the significance of objects in museum collections.