Digital meets Culture

online, 15th March 2023

A Cloud for All – the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage

The European Commission – DG Research & Innovation invites all stakeholders in the cltural heritage sector in a virtual event ‘A Cloud for all – the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage’ that will take place on Wednesday 15 March 2023 from 10:00 h to 12:30 h CET.

Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture Education and Youth, will open the event.

The goal of this event is to start building a community of practice around the ‘European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage’ where peers help each other enter the ‘new world’ that the digital transition is opening up.

In the first part, the event will demonstrate the tangible benefits of the Cultural Heritage Cloud. In the second part, participants will be able to discuss their views and propose solutions on specific issues, including on capacity building, the opportunities for digital collaboration as well as on commercial opportunities for the sector.

The ‘European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage’ is a European Commission’s initiative that will help safeguard European cultural treasures and ensure that our rich cultural heritage continues to thrive in the digital age.

The Cultural Heritage Cloud will foster cooperation and co-creation among cultural, creative and technology sectors. Moreover, it will bring tangible benefits in the day-to-day work of all cultural heritage professionals and museums, including the smaller, rural and remote ones.

This event is a direct response to the findings of a stakeholder’s survey that took place between September and November 2022, where stakeholders indicated the need for clear information on the benefits of a Cultural Heritage Cloud.

To participate in the event, please register from here.

To find out more about the Cultural Heritage Cloud please consult the European Commission’s press release.

Subscribe here to join the Cultural Heritage Cloud community of practice.

A new booklet published by the European Commission showcases the power of culture and the arts to improve health and well-being in the European Union.

Presenting “Get inspired! Culture: a driver for health and wellbeing in the EU”

European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Get inspired! Culture: a driver for health and wellbeing in the EU, Publications Office of the European Union, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/09124

“Get inspired! Culture: a driver for health and wellbeing in the EU” gathers good practice examples from a range of projects from several European funding programmes, namely Creative Europe, Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. They show the power of culture and the arts to improve health and well-being in the European Union. The projects selected within these initiatives have in common that they build bridges between fields that are usually approached individually.

From art and psychology, to music and care for Alzheimer’s patients, from the role played by design in psychology, to the impact of architecture in psychiatry, the projects pave the way to synergies at the service of a very intimate part of citizens’ lives.

The present brochure epitomises the awareness both from the European Commission and the European Parliament of the power of culture in the lives of all citizens. It has also a commitment on our side to spare no efforts to make a difference in the field of mental health to the benefits of European citizens.

You can download the booket at this link.

Last days to participate: the consultation survey is open until 23rd February 2023

Public consultation on the EU’s Horizon Research and Innovation Programmes 2014-2027

The Commission Services are currently running the largest ever public consultation held on the past, present and future of the EU’s Horizon research and innovation programmes 2014-2027.

Through this consultation, you are able to share your views on:
• The ex-post evaluation of Horizon 2020
• The mid-term evaluation of Horizon Europe
• The Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027

This is an excellent opportunity to share your views and make your voice heard – please do not hesitate to re-share the news within your network of stakeholders, inviting them to reply to the questionnaire and/or share position papers. The consultation is open until 23 February 2023.

– Respond to the consultation on EU Survey
– See the news alert for the consultation

For any questions related to the consultation, please contact RTD-PUBLIC-CONSULTATION-HORIZON@ec.europa.eu

Brussels (Belgium), 27-28 June 2023

International Conference on Cultural Tourism Advances

Leuven, Belgium, 27-28 June 2023

The conference is co-organized by IMPACTOUR, INCULTUM and the other EU H2020 projects operating the area of sustainable tourism promotionolders on the territory. Selected and presented papers are expected to be published by a Springer book reflecting the breakthroughs and future perspectives of Cultural Tourism.

While exact estimates are difficult to make, it has repeatedly been mentioned that approximately 40% of all European tourists make a destination choice based on the cultural offerings. This leads to significant economic effects and has further strengthened the view of cultural heritage as a strategic resource for its economic impact, but also for its role in creating and enhancing social capital and achieving the goals of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. At the same time, economic effects have been distributed unequally – often being more prevalent in urbanized areas – and the exponential growth of tourism (notwithstanding the dip during the Covid-19 pandemic) created issues of both over-and underexploitation.

The goal of this Conference is to further understanding of the sustainable development potential of cultural tourism by focusing on successful policy interventions, new cultural tourism trends, advances in visitor management systems, and new business and/or governance models.

Conference website:

https://ees.kuleuven.be/en/culturaltourismconference

The Conference is organized by KU Leuven in collaboration with the European Research Executive Agency and the projects IMPACTOUR, SPOT, TEXTOUR, BE.CULTOUR; SMARTCULTOUR and INCULTUM.

The book shows as the power of culture and the arts to improve health and well-being in the European Union

“Get inspired!” A new publication of European Union

An interesting publication about culture and its relationship with health and well-being is published on the official website of European Union.

The book’s title is “Get inspired! Culture. A driver for health and well-being in the EU” and it was published in November 2022. It gathers good practice examples from a range of projects from several European funding programmes – Creative Europe, Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe – with the aim of showing the power of culture and the arts to improve health and well-being in the European Union. The projects selected within these initiatives have in common that they build bridges between fields that are usually approached individually: from art and psychology, to music and care for Alzheimer’s patients, from the role played by design in psychology, to the impact of architecture in psychiatry.

This publication confirms the awareness of the European institutions on the power of culture in the lives of all citizens.

Click here to download the book

Last days to participate: the consultation survey is open until 23rd February 2023

Public consultation on the EU’s Horizon Research and Innovation Programmes 2014-2027

The Commission Services are currently running the largest ever public consultation held on the past, present and future of the EU’s Horizon research and innovation programmes 2014-2027.

– Respond to the consultation on EU Survey
– See the news alert for the consultation

For any questions related to the consultation, please contact RTD-PUBLIC-CONSULTATION-HORIZON@ec.europa.eu

The event was organized and coordinated by the INCULTUM Pilot set in Sicily in the framework of actions to promote and upscale the tourism in the territory

Public-private stakeholder meeting in Calatafimi, Sicily

The INCULTUM Pilot set in Sicily is coordinated by the GAL Elimos, and is organizing a cycle of meetings dedicated to discuss the development of itineraries and other actions that aim to enhance the heritage locations and operators in the territory of Mounts of Trapani. On 13/02/2023, a discussion meeting was held at the Calatafimi municipal library between public authorities and private stakeholders, organized by GAL Elimos with participation of COOPCULTURE.

During the meeting, detailed information was provided on the INCULTUM project and on the meaning of collaboration between the public and private sectors. The research experts of medieval studies presented both material and immaterial Islamic heritage for the creation of an archaeological-cultural itinerary in the area and the COOPCULTURE presented its activity as an operational arm in the area in supproting tourism and training operators. During the discussion, the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors for the realization of the project and the training of the necessary professionals emerged. It was also underlined that the general infrastructure for tourists’ use must be guaranteed in order to support further actions for the promotion of the archaeological-cultural itinerary with an Islamic nature.

The objectives set in the meeting include the training of operators by COOPCULTURE to be comoleted by July 2023, the creation of a timetable for the transformation of assets into tourist sites, the organization of a meeting between Calatafimi, GAL Elimos and the authorities of the water basin and the presentation of research and reports on the potential archaeological heritage present in the area.

Learn More about INCULTUM Pilot in Sicily

All photographs in this post courtesy of GAL Elimos

Oslo (Norway), 19-23 June 2023

Archiving 2023 conference

The 2023 edition of Archiving conference is going to be held in Oslo from 19th to 23rd June 2023, at NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, with the aim of bringing together an international community of technical experts, managers, practitioners, academics from cultural heritage institutions, universities, and commercial enterprises, to explore and discuss state-of-the-art imaging, digitization, preservation, and access for 2D, 3D, and AV materials, including documents, manuscripts, photographs, bound volumes, paintings, videos, and born-digital works.

The interdisciplinary focus of the conference creates a rich environment for information exchange. In addition to presenting the latest research results on digitization and curation, Archiving investigates new technologies, strategies, and policies, as well as reports on successful projects that can serve as benchmarks in the field and explores different platforms and ways of visualizing data, allowing for deeper connections with collections.

Download here the conference’s flyer (PDF 1,93 MB).

Conference webpage: https://www.imaging.org/IST/IST/Conferences/Archiving/Archiving2023/Archiving2023_Home.aspx

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

General Chair: Sony George, NTNU (Norway)
Technical Program Chair: Robert Kastler, MOMA (US)
Short Course Chairs: Martina Hoffmann, Swiss National Library (Switzerland), Kristin Phelps, US Copyright Office (US)
Past Chair: Fenella France, Library of Congress (US)

Questionnaire is open until March 30th 2023

Questionnaire from Europeana’s New Task Force “From Shelf To Europeana”

Schachbrettblume (Fritillaria), Blütenknospe und Blüte von unten, Blossfeldt, Karl (Herstellung) (Fotograf), 1930, Public Domain via Europeana

Europeana’s new Task Force, “From Shelf To Europeana”, that aims to support in particular smaller cultural heritage organisations, created a new questionnaire, hoping to help more small heritage organisations deliver higher quality (meta)data to Europeana, and support these organisations in their capacity building towards digital transformation.

This questionnaire aims to gather information about small-scale cultural heritage institutions in Europe interested in digitally presenting their collections to the public, particularly in the Europeana portal.

At this link it is possible to fill in the questionnaire, until March 30th 2023.

Organized by the University of Pisa and USI - Università della Svizzera Italiana, the winter school focuses on Tourism between Heritage, Knowledge and Digital Media

Winter School ‘A New Grand Tour in Tuscany’

image courtesy of Pietro Masi, Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy

A brand new Winter School program, organized by the University Of Pisa (Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge and Degree Course in Tourism Science) and the UNESCO Chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in word heritage sites of the USI – Università della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, CH), started on 13th February 2023, until Saturday 18th, targeting students, scholars and professionals.

The Winter School is organized by Professor Alessandro Tosi of University of Pisa, Scientific Director of the Museo della Grafica of Palazzo Lanfranchi and honorary member of Photoconsortium, the international association for the promotion of photographic heritage.

In a rich program of different activities, participants had the opportunity to follow lectures held by scholars and experts in a broad interdisciplinary perspective, to engage with local stakeholders to learn about practices and issues in the management of tourist flows and the organization of major events regarding art and cultural heritage, while being able to experience firsthand (both on an intellectual and sensorial level) a new Grand Tour in some of the most bewitching enviroments in Tuscany.

Digital media provide the necessary tools to deepen, represent and communicate the relationship between tangible and intangible heritage and history of the inhabitants of the territory, in a consistent and exciting narrative. Among the talks, on Wednesday 15th, an interesting lecture by dr. Antonella Fresa discussed about the use of digital communication and digital heritage collections in tourism promotion, with a presentation entitled “Digital communication, digital contents and participatory approaches for cultural and touristic promotion of small towns: the experience of Photoconsortium and Europeana”. – Download presentation (PDF, 5 Mb)

Winter School
A New Grand Tour in Tuscany
Tourism between Heritage, Knowledge and Digital Media

UniPi, Università di Pisa – USI, Università della Svizzera italiana
Academic partner: Fondazione Campus

Organizers: Alessandro Tosi, Lorenzo Cantoni, Silvia De Ascaniis
Instructors: Alessandro Tosi, Lorenzo Cantoni, Silvia De Ascaniis, Enrica Lemmi, Veronica Neri, Adriano Fabris, Antonella Fresa
Tutors: Silvia Dadà, Erika Temperino, Emanuele Fulvio Perri, Eleonora Alberti
Administration: Maria Leandra Lupi
Summer/Winter Schools office: Erica Ribechini
Staff: Maria Cioni
Comunication: Simona Bellandi, Fabiana Fiorelli
With the support of:
Comune di Pisa, Museo della Grafica, Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Pisa, Orto Botanico, Sistema Museale di Ateneo dell’Università di Pisa, Opera della Primaziale Pisana, Camera di Commercio Toscana Nord-Ovest, Terre di Pisa, Fondazione Carnevale di Viareggio, Comune di Lajatico, Pro Loco Lajatico, Photoconsortium, Promoter, Royal Victoria Hotel