Designers and craftsmen sought for Robert Burns museum

The National Trust for Scotland is seeking graphic designers, model-makers and metal craftworkers as part of the £21m Robert Burns Birthplace Museum project.

The museum, which is expected to complete in 2010, 251 years after the Scottish poet’s birth, will be in Alloway, the Ayrshire town where Burns was born.

The building, designed by Edinburgh-based Simpson & Brown Architects, will be the centrepiece of the museum, which will also feature the Burns Monument, Brig o’Doon, Auld Kirk Alloway, Burns Cottage and smallholding, and a walkway connecting these sites, on what is currently the Burns National Heritage Park.

The NTS is seeking a graphic design consultancy for work across a wide range of museum-quality and external graphic panels and print material for the project.

The commission is valued at between £100 000 and £200 000, and the NTS expects to appoint a consultancy in March, with work set to begin at the start of May.

The NTS is also seeking a metal craftworker to create metal cut-out figures, animals and word sculptures to be hung from trees and frames around the site, and cut-out scenes to be built into steel boxes. This work is valued at between £50 000 and £75 000.

A model-maker is also sought to create a range of models, including an interpretive model of a cottage, as part of a contract valued at between £40 000 and £80 000.