The Burrell Collection’s transformation shows us what happens when design and rigorous, data-driven research create measurable change in people’s lives.

This was a museum that risked fading into irrelevance: a failing building, declining visitor numbers, and a visitor profile that didn’t reflect the diversity of Glasgow’s communities. Event's long relationship with the museum, from masterplanning through to opening day and beyond, helped drive transformational change that created the museum Glasgow deserved.

The data tells a powerful story:

• Visitor numbers nearly tripled - from under 200,000 in 2013 to over 555,000 in 2024.
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• 97% of visitors rated their experience good or very good.
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• 50% of local visitors now come from Glasgow’s most deprived areas, making the audience profile representative of the city for the first time.
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• The museum generated £19.9m of economic benefit to Glasgow within six months of reopening.
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• In 2023, the Burrell won Art Fund Museum of the Year, with judges praising its “rigour and imagination” in accessibility and design.

To achieve this, the team focused its attention on:

1. Radical accessibility
   Every gallery was co-created with communities, every interpretive choice considered multiple senses and languages, and families were invited to play, not just observe. Visitors talked about feeling “seen” in a museum for the first time.
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2. Evidence-driven design
   At every stage, data was gathered to shape design decisions. The project aimed confidently for beauty (and achieved that), but it also set measurable goals for visitor uplift, demographics, and economic impact. We designed explicitly to achieve these goals.
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3. Designing for transformation
   From circulation to storytelling, the design opened up the building and the collection to global and local audiences. Object interpretation - tactile, digital, hybrid, sound - invited deeper engagement, and provoked delight.

Why it matters:

The Burrell proves that design changes lives. By embedding research and and evidence from the outset, the project could become truly transformative, not only securing groundbreaking funding, but, on a daily basis, enriching lives in ways that actually matter.

At a time when cultural organisations face intense pressure to locate relevance and feel confident in it, this project is a model: rigorously planned, deeply inclusive, and evidence-based.

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