Your chance to handle some rare treasures from Glasgow's Burrell Collection

Members of the Amina Muslim Women Resource Centre have created the “handling box” in a bid from museum owners Glasgow Life to raise awareness of its re-opening in March.

Ann Al Sholi, one of the volunteers who took part, explained: “When I was growing up you were scared to breathe on the glass boxes in museums – and here we were, without a piece of glass between us and these precious objects. I could see the pieces up close and appreciate all their details and beauty. It was wonderful.”

The handling boxes are part of Glasgow Life’s biggest ever outreach programme, involving 15,000 people, and are designed to boost the museum’s community-based work across the city and the public programme inside The Burrell for years to come.y

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Between now and March the learning team will take the handling boxes to local communities around The Burrell Collection to highlight the connections between Glaswegians and the world-class collection. Groups located close to Pollok Country Park are invited to contact The Burrell if they are interested in a handling box visit.

The box for Ann’s group included a range of precious pieces such as an Islamic tile, an Ancient Egyptian coin, and a jade amulet.

“Having the Burrell team explain the history of the objects was fascinating and really brought them to life,” says Ann, who is a member of the Amina Friendship Group which has Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Indonesian and Scottish members.

“We chose nine items and even chose the colour of the box – green – which is important in the Muslim faith.

“My favourite is a beautiful carved wooden knitting sheath, used by men and women, which enabled them to knit with one hand.

“Miners often did it on the way to work, making socks.”

She smiled: “I love to knit so that really appealed to me. So many questions came to mind as I handled the items. Why was it made, who made it, was it a gift? It made me realise people long ago weren’t really that different from us. For example, when I saw the beautiful blue cosmetic jar from 1500 BC, I realised someone used that all those years ago to make themselves feel better, just like we do when we put on our make up in the morning.”

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The Burrell, which houses one of the greatest global art collections ever amassed by one person, will re-open in March, following a multi-million-pound refurbishment.