Digital meets Culture

9th May 2020, 14:00-16:00 CET

Europe Day – Webinar on Digital Cultural Heritage

To commemorate this year’s Europe Day organised on the 9th of May a webinar dedicated to Digital Cultural Heritage is being organised.

This webinar brings together two of the smallest island nations of the EU – Malta and Cyprus. These are the only EU members in the Mediterranean sea, physically cut off from the main continent with thousands of years of rich history and unique UNESCO listed world heritage sites. Both Mediterranean Islands have a lot in common, they are both committed to preserve and valorize their Cultural Heritage. The will present in this event outstanding and unique case studies from their national digitization programs and beyond.

A number of outstanding case studies (UNESCO WHL monuments) from Cyprus, Malta & Germany, as well as current research projects will be presented, which will take a very practical approach to the current and future challenges in Cultural Heritage.

Some of the topics being covered in this webinar include:

the contribution of digitization in the preservation, interpretation and valorization of Cultural Heritage.
the achievements in Cultural Heritage digitization in each of these two nations.
the current challenges being faced by cultural Heritage due to the COVID19 pandemic.
ways how Cultural Heritage can push a regeneration of the tourism sector.
the way forward in terms of harnessing the digital potential in Cultural Heritage and collaboration on an EU level.

Speakers from the European Commission, EC representation in Cyprus, European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus and the Ministry of Culture Malta, Heritage Malta, the UNESCO Chair and ERA Chair at the Cyprus University of Technology, the University of Malta a Maltese member of the European Parliament will actively participate in this webinar.

Free registration: https://cutt.ly/Ryk8nja

this Saturday 9th May 2020, 14:00-16:00 CET

Special Webinar on Digital Cultural Heritage

To commemorate this year’s Europe Day organised on the 9th of May a webinar dedicated to Digital Cultural Heritage is being organised. This webinar brings together two of the smallest island nations of the EU – Malta and Cyprus. These are the only EU members in the Mediterranean sea, physically cut off from the main continent with thousands of years of rich history and unique UNESCO listed world heritage sites. Both Mediterranean Islands have a lot in common, they are both committed to preserve and valorize their Cultural Heritage. The will present in this event outstanding and unique case studies from their national digitization programs and beyond.

Some of the topics being covered in this webinar include:

– the contribution of digitization in the preservation, interpretation and valorization of Cultural Heritage.

– the achievements in Cultural Heritage digitization in each of these two nations.

– the current challenges being faced by cultural Heritage due to the COVID19 pandemic.

– ways how Cultural Heritage can push a regeneration of the tourism sector.

– the way forward in terms of harnessing the digital potential in Cultural Heritage and collaboration on an EU level.

Free registration: https://cutt.ly/Ryk8nja

Want a taste of the future?

Ars Electronica Home Delivery!

The Ars Electronica Center of Linz (Austria) offers to people a weekly programme for attending at performances, concerts, exhibitions from their homes, just connecting at ars.electronica.art/homedelivery/en.
Objective:
Ars Electronica Home Delivery initiative is not conceived as a substitute of a visit to the museum for the time it remains closed, but rather as a newly developed approach that aims to permanently open up the Linz-based artistic and scholarly engagement and enlarge its audience. The goal is to create an additional and lasting range of offerings, able to enhance the museum portfolio in the long term, for example, for schools and businesses. In the future, guided tours, presentations, and workshops will not just be held at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, but also on the web or as hybrid formats, thus making them interesting for an audience beyond Austria’s borders.

Challenge:
The use of the web represents a very interesting challenge for the team of the museum: it aim at creating an experience to foster people to actively take part and participate by involving, inspiring and motivating everyone.
Services:
The weekly programme of Ars Electronica Home Delivery includes guided tours of Ars Electronica exhibitions, excursions to the Ars Electronica Labs, visits to the Machine Learning Studio, concerts with real-time visualizations, Deep Space LIVE sessions, workshops with engineers, and talks with artists and scientists from all over the world. None of this is pre-recorded, most of it is interactive, and all of it is going to be LIVE.
People can experience all the Ars Electronica Home Delivery events live at ars.electronica.art/homedelivery and watch them again afterwards here.

Full press release, photos and a video can be found here.
Ars Electronica Center website
Contacts: robert.bauernhansl@ars.electronica.art / Tel.: +43.732.7272.38

A virtual platform to share and promote digital best practices related to culture and cultural heritage from across Europe and the world.

Europa Nostra digital Agora

COVID-19 pandemic particularly affected the cultural and cultural heritage sectors with travel bans, public closures and event cancellations with alarming financial implications.
As a consequence, plenty of museums and cultural organizations increased the use of digital technology and started to find creative and innovative digital solutions such as free online content, social media challenges, online concerts or webinars with the goal to reach their audience, engage new public and continue to share culture.
The measures that at the beginning have been adopted as the only challenge for remaining alive in this context have been transformed into an opportunity, a new form for making, sharing, connecting people and promoting civic engagement in art and culture.
Europa Nostra decided to collect these several digital initiatives in a virtual space, fostering its wide network of members, associates, partners, and volunteers to share their virtual interactions and journeys for optimising people’s confinement.
The platform offers a wide range of virtual tours, online performances, webinars, podcasts, resources, social media challenges and latest EU policy updates.

Europa Nostra invite to get involved in the Agora by:
– Sharing digital initiatives to be featured at agora@europanostra.org
– Engaging on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) with the hashtag #EuropaNostraAgora
– weekly update providing a “digest” overview of the collection
– Visiting the Europa Nostra Digital Agora online platform

The new research outlining the role played by arts and culture in supporting access to higher education

‘Welcoming Culture in Universities- Awareness of Gypsy Roma Traveller’s culture’

The project, carried out by Rosemary (Rosa) E Kostic Ciseros from Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research included a symposium, 2 art exhibitions, 2 online campaigns, 3 films.
During the activities GRT and non-GRT academics and artists and policymakers worked in partnership for better understand local, regional or national challenges.
The cultural heritage artefacts from the GRT community members involved in the project raised a debate around how to make universities more culturally welcoming to marginalised communities.
Objectives:
• Extend existing related research activity and support HE institutions in addressing particular social issues facing different vulnerable communities at a local and national level;
• Facilitate the use of existing research and the exchange of knowledge between universities, artists and policymakers
• Carryout events and activities aimed at improving the dialogue between universities, artists and policymakers;
• Activity and training to better equip academics, including postgraduate researchers and early career researchers, to communicate effectively with policymakers;
• Partnerships and collaborations aimed at supporting evidence-based policy making;
• The exchange of people best practices;
• Curate an exhibition that reflects the data and display this in an artistic manner within the university environment.
The findings of the project feed directly into a follow up to the GRT in HE report drafted with Baroness Whitaker from Westminster in November 2019 and led by Professor Margaret Greenfields from Buckinghamshire New University (BUCKS).

Links to the films:
•GRT in HE Film- Highlights film from the Feb 27th workshop held at Coventry University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvpTuA151WU&t=9s
•#EachforEqual campaign film link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pegMEihVMRc
•Generations film link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBaSUWGTOx0&t=2s
Read the full report here.

An intercultural project for helping marginalized communities to access Higher Education

The Gypsy Roma Traveller in Higher Education- Influencing Policy

The Gypsy Roma Traveller in Higher Education- Influencing Policy is a research project concluded the 31st March 2020 and funded by QR Strategic Priorities Fund 2019-20 and Coventry University Centre for Dance Research.
Focus of the project was to concern policy makers about the barriers faced by GRT in accessing Higher Education and collect new evidence for influencing political outputs.
The research brought together GRT and non-GRT academics and artists in partnership with policymakers, for better understand local, regional or national challenges.
The main activities included in the project consisted of a one-day symposium and two art exhibitions which allowed the research team to draw upon its institutional expertise given the networks which already exist, for example working with NGOs, other UK universities and collaboration with local academics and artists.
The initial exhibition was Ex Libris, a visual collection created by British Gypsy artist Daniel Baker and played with the tension that exists at the university. The second exhibition, Generations was curated by Rosa Cisneros from Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research and brought together local photographer Antony Weir and the Roma Project charity.
The exhibitions include films, images and cultural heritage artefacts from the GRT community members involved in the project and also feed into thinking around how to make universities more culturally welcoming to marginalised communities.
Careful consideration was placed on the visualisations that are associated with the GRT community. Special attention and care went into the two social media campaigns that were linked to the project. The #GRT #PrideInArt PI produced material that serves as a counternarrative to the erroneous images that often circulate social media and mainstream channels. Three films were created, and one aligned with the international Women’s Day Campaign #EachforEqual. The films and project were picked up the BBC- Coventry, Coventry.
The findings feed directly into a follow up to the GRT in HE report drafted with Baroness Whitaker from Westminster in November 2019 and led by Professor Margaret Greenfields from Buckinghamshire New University (BUCKS).
Links to the films:
•GRT in HE Film- Highlights film from the Feb 27th workshop held at Coventry University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvpTuA151WU&t=9s
•#EachforEqual campaign film link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pegMEihVMRc
•Generations film link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBaSUWGTOx0&t=2s
Read the full report here.

Findings and Recommendations

NEMO survey on the impact of COVID-19 on museums in Europe

The Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) is an independent network of national museum organisations representing the museum community of the member states of the Council of Europe.
It has always promoted the work of museums and their value to policy makers and has supported museums providing with information, networking and opportunities for collaboration.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, European museums had to manage a situation of crisis undertaking actions in regards to the coronavirus.
To better assist the European museum community, NEMO created a short survey and asked the European museum community to fill out it to collect information of museums’ actions in regards to the coronavirus.

Until 3rd April, 650 museums responded to the survey (41 countries in total: museums from all 27 EU member states, from 9 member states of the Council of Europe and feedback from museums in the USA, Philippines, Malaysia, French Polynesia, Iran).

The data highlight that the majority of museums in Europe and around the globe have closed; the biggest losses were recorded by the larger museums and museums in touristic areas, with weekly losses adding up to hundreds of thousands of Euros.

NEMO, in light of the collected data, underlines the value digital cultural heritage and digital engagement that, in the past weeks, has bring people together, encouraging creativity and offering a virtual space to share experiences.
Museums have been quick and pro-active in their response to the pandemic. They have increased digital services, engaged people staying at home, they have shared collections and offered digital tools. There has been unprecedented digital activity, but this is not enough to cope with the losses suffered.

NEMO asks governments to invest in Europe’s cultural heritage in the future, to mitigate losses of museums and to continue the investment in large-scale projects in museums across Europe.

Link here to read the Findings and Recommendations of NEMO.

A cultural “coming together” despite the distance

EXARC: the new monthly series #FinallyFriday

EXARC, the ICOM affiliated organization for Archaeological Open-Air Museums, Experimental Archeology, Ancient & Traditional Technology and Interpretation & Education, has increased its online presence with a new monthly series called #FinallyFriday.

This is an open access online forum for interaction between EXARC members and others interested to discuss various subjects and have a true “coming together” despite the distance.
The free meetings are hold every last Friday of the month. In these occasions two EXARC members discuss about a specific topic put it in different perspectives.

People can take part in the discussion, asking questions and presenting their take on the subject. After the discussion, EXARC specialists go live in an interactive session with those who tuned in.

Last Friday 24th April, the #FinallyFriday focused on the study of food in the past; in particular on the technology, ingredients, and rituals surrounding bread.

The title was: History in bite-size Chunks.

To speak about the topic were called Maeve L’Estrange, PhD specialised in research relates to food, culture and identity in Ireland, and Farrell Monaco, an experimental archaeologist and food-writer whose research centres on food, food preparation, and food-related ceramics in the Roman Mediterranean.

The speakers providing insights into the benefits and difficulties of using an experimental archaeology approach, discussed their research of bread making in the Roman Mediterranean and in Medieval Ireland.

#FinallyFriday: everybody interested in finding out some of the specialisations of archaeology can join next meetings.
Check out https://exarc.net/finallyfriday for details.

Deadline : December 2020

Extended dead line for the REACH Call for Posters & Videos: your are still in time to participate!

In light of the interest received by the initiative,the REACH Consortium have decided to keep the call open until the end of the year.
The call is addressed to researchers, practitioners, professionals, citizens and in general to the representatives from the cultural heritage sector who are interested in promoting the value of cultural heritage and in supporting its public recognition.
We welcome posters and videos which share expertise across all disciplines related to the promotion of participation and social cohesion within Cultural Heritage. Send your abstract to dissemination-reach@promoter.it, we accept contributes till the end of the year!

Posters and Videos session topics:
• Societal Cohesion – Minorities, Majorities, Groups: everyday lives, especially the excluded, marginalized, and right-wing minorities, the politics of nationalism and majorities
• Societal Cohesion – legacies of imperialism/colonialism
• Sustainability and Environmental/Ecological Responsibility: ‘cultural landscapes’ bringing together holistically natural and cultural heritage in the Anthropocene Age
• Rapid Societal Change – Creativity, Authenticity, Audiences, Users and Emerging and Disruptive Technologies
• Narratives, Place/place-making and Identity

Submit abstracts using this Form
Click here for more information and guidelines for poster preparation and display Click here for the REACH Pisa Conference webpage
#participateinculture

Harry up and submit your artwork!

“Coventry Creates” project: deadline for applications is getting close!

The 30^thApril expires the deadline for participating in the call jointly launched by the Universities of Coventry and Warwick entitled “Coventry Creates”.
The goal is to fund local artists hit financially by the COVID-19 by offering a fee of £ 2,000 for each project that will set up a collaboration between local artists or creative organizations and researchers in order to create novel artworks in response to research projects.

The call for applications is open to all types of research, relating to the two universities’ City of Culture Research Themes and it is addressed across all artistic disciplines: arts, dance, film, libraries, literature, music, museums, and theatre and visual arts.

Projects can deal with COVID-19 pandemic issues or not in order to apply.
Applications that showcase interdisciplinarity and innovation are especially welcome.
A fundamental condition of each commission is the understanding that the artist will work with/respond to a matched research project through a series of digital conversations and collaboration.

The selected works will be showcased this summer in a special digital exhibition in conjunction with the Coventry City of Culture Trust and then kept in the Coventry City of Culture Digital Archive.

Read more about Coventry Creates joint project here