Tributes to Sam as she moves to Dundee

Curator Sam Bannerman looks at some of the exhibits.

But now Sam Bannerman, the popular curator at St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum, is to leave the museum after three years in the post.

She is moving to be the first employee of the nascent Museum of Transport in Dundee.

Sam joined the North Street museum in January 2013, having worked at the Black Watch Museum in Perth.

She was there during the redevelopment of the museum, which fitted her well for the work in developing the research facility in St Andrews that opened last year.

And it will be good experience for Dundee Museum of Transport, where she will oversee the development of the city’s tram depot in the Stobswell area as the permanent home for the city’s transport collection.

“It doesn’t seem that long ago that I came to St Andrews,” Sam commented, “and there have been so man highlights it’s difficult to pick just one.

“Working on the development of the research room and bringing it to fruition was particularly good,

“Bringing the St Andrews Play Club into the museum to perform was exhausting – but exciting,” Sam recalled.

She also enjoyed the one-off events at the museum over the years to mark the Festival of Museums.

Anne Morris is the chairman of the Trust’s museum committee and described the committee “distraught” at Sam’s decision to move on.

“She has been outstanding in the changes she has made in the museum and developing the forward plan.”

Ms Morris described “everything” Sam had done at the museum as “first-rate”.

“She has a great vision of what a museum should offer people, and she is very good at bringing in outside bodies.”

Much of what Sam has done at the museum is behind the scenes, Ms Morris explained, highlighting her work in looking after and organising the Trust’s collection, using modern technology to record it, and her use of social media, which, Ms Morris believed had brought more and more visitors to the museum.

Ms Morris also commented that Sam had been a good fundraiser for the museum, winning grant funding and also achieving the important accreditation for the museum for Museums Galleries Scotland.

“This is a wonderful step forward in Sam’s career,” Ms Morris added, “but she certainly will be greatly missed.”