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Visitor Numbers Boosted by Divine Cat

Published: 06 February 2013

Whalsay pupils examine the cat Whalsay pupils examine the catZoomVisitor numbers at Shetland Museum and Archives increased to the highest ever level in 2012. Numbers released this week show that 88,963 people visited the building during the year, an increase from the previous year when the Lewis Chessmen and Tall Ships visitors had already boosted numbers to an all-time record.

The Gayer Anderson Cat Exhibition from September to December attracted over 6000 more visits from the same period in the previous year, making this the most successful temporary exhibition to date in terms of visitor numbers.

During the Cat exhibition, Museum staff delivered 31 workshops to 622 school pupils from all over Shetland. A number of teachers chose to study Egypt as part of their class topics, allowing pupils to take advantage of the internationally important artefact on their
doorstep.

During 2012, a total of 2352 pupils visited Shetland Museum and Archives to take part in over 100 workshops on a variety of topics. This is the highest number of school visits recorded in one year since the current building opened in 2007, and can be attributed to partnership working with teaching staff, and developing learning events to compliment classroom topics.

Shetland Museum and Archives continues to be a popular and well used community resource and visitor attraction; the hub for heritage and culture in Shetland.