Regional museums are taking part in improving the UK's literacy skills by inspiring school children to write using art exhibitions and historic collections.

The National Literacy Trust's Talk for Writing initiative, supported by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), was piloted by the Preston Museums and Schools in Partnership group earlier this year.

The scheme enabled children and young people across a wide age range to develop literacy skills in fun and inspiring ways, engaging with museum, gallery and archive collections.

As a result, the work in Preston will be showcased at a national conference taking place on 9 December 2010 as part of MLA's Strategic Commissioning Workforce Skills programme.

The initiative will be expanded through 2010-11 and will see a number of Renaissance Hub, as well as national, museums taking part.

As part of the plans, The British Library's Literature in Context (LinC) project has already began working with writers' historic houses across England and museums holding writers' archives to support teachers of English at key stages 3 to 5.

The MLA's Learning Links placement funding will enable teachers and museum and archive staff to work together and build sustainable resources. For more information on the scheme, see the MLA website.