By VIVIENNE NICOLL

GLASGOW Life has been awarded a £40,000 grant to help them boost their online shop.

Any extra cash raised as a result will be reinvested in the collections enjoyed by thousands of people in the city each year.

The grant is part of £700,000 from Museums Galleries Scotland to 18 projects in 17 different museums across the country.

They range from restoring locomotives in Newtongrange to a collaborative digital exhibition for Orkney and Shetland.

Glasgow Life applied on behalf of a partnership of museums across the central to belt to fund training from Art UK to make the best of their online shop and to develop the site to better support Scottish museums.

Jill Miller, director of cultural services at Glasgow Life, said: “We are delighted that Museums Galleries Scotland has backed our plans to further develop our digital retail offer.

Every penny raised goes back into supporting our world-class venues and Glasgow collections.

“This grant will help us to do even more, developing our presence in an increasingly digital market and allow us to share best practice with partner museums.”

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for culture, tourism and external affair, said Scotland has a rich cultural heritage with museums playing a vital role in telling that story.

She added: “These projects are all great examples of the tremendous work which museums do up and down Scotland and I am sure they will give great pleasure to visitors.”

Joanne Orr, chief executive officer of Museums Galleries Scotland, said the organisation was pleased to be strengthening Scottish museums by supporting such a diverse range of projects.

The largest award of £60,000 went to Paxton House in Berwickshire to improve the care of its nationally significant Chippendale furniture collection and to arrange a special exhibition this year to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Thomas Chippendale’s birth.