Digital meets Culture

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

Prague,5th and 6th March 2020

Outstanding workshop on Resilient Cultural Heritage for the REACH Project

The Resilience for Cultural Heritage workshop, organised and hosted by Charles University, took place in Prague on 5 and 6 March 2020. One of the objectives of the REACH project has been to test the concept of resilient cultural heritage through its four pilot and programme of themed workshops. In addition to continuing the project’s participatory theme, this workshop considered the different interpretations of resilience within the fields of cultural and heritage, involving a series of varied and fascinating presentations and vibrant debate.

Following an introduction from Project Coordinator Neil Forbes, Hana Cervinkova opened proceedings with her presentation ‘Unpacking Resilience in the Context of Jewish Urban Material Heritage in Contemporary Poland’ which described the importance of preservation of Jewish graveyards in Polish cities, where their heritage would otherwise have been forgotten. She was followed by Alexandra Bitušíková’s ‘Strengthening Community Resilience to Extremism: heritage as a resilience tool’ in which she described the reaction of local communities to the shock election of a Neo-Nazi as regional governor in Banska Bystrica and how the community came together to stand-up for its values and reclaim their cultural heritage from the populists.

The next session began with a joint presentation ‘Rural landscape as heritage: a tool for building resilience in the context of disturbances affecting small towns’ from Paola Branduini and Fabio Carnelli. This outlined and contrasted two Italian cases, the first of was of protest against the building of an airport road that would destroy valuable rural heritage and the second was of how a town recovered from the devastation of an earthquake. Jan Krajíček’s ‘Resilience of de-militarized borderland: Iron Curtain heritage in Aš region’ detailed the unwanted heritage and remnants of the Iron Curtain’s infrastructure that had divided and changed communities and how it is now being re-evaluated. Finally, Zdeněk Uherek shared his ‘Resilience in the urban environment from the socio-anthropological perspective’ that returned to earlier themes such as groups no longer living in areas, and their history not being remembered by the current communities. Resilience here is the question of saving the heritage of one group from another, which could be as a result of living through regime change, maintaining heritage, but also assimilating direct or indirect influences on beliefs and infrastructure.

After lunch, Mirela Tase and Natalia Linitskaya made presentations that described ‘Difficult Heritage’. The former presented ‘The public perception of Communist heritage in post-communist Albania’ which considered the built heritage that remains in Tirana and the ongoing debate of what should be done with it; should society move on from its past or should the buildings stand, so that people do not forget? The latter discussed ‘Protecting the Tractor makers’ Neighbourhood in Minsk: Civil Activism with Lack of Civil Rights’ in which Natalie presented plans and images of the communist districts that were built for workers when the factories were opened, considering current perceptions and legacy.

The final session of the day examined resilience within the scope of institutions and heritage. Richard Biegel stepped in to describe the progression of the Charles University’s ‘Art History Department – University´s Cultural Heritage’, illustrating that institutions would have had to have been resilient to operate, in spite of multiple socio-political regime changes, during the 20th Century. Eva Špačková provide insight into the ‘University Museum as a source for creative interactions in arts, science and technology (case of Iowa University Museum)’ and asked whether European universities could also display more works of art. Finally, keynote speaker Thorsten Ludwig, managing director of Interpret Europe, concluded the day with a presentation on ‘Engaging citizens with Europe’s cultural heritage‘ with special emphasis on UNESCO’s values and learning principles’ that led to an interesting discussion about the values and messages that heritage sites can share and the best ways that narratives can be framed.

The second day of the workshop concentrated on the four pilots of the REACH project, as they shared their results and considered resilience related findings.

For the Rural heritage pilot, José-Maria Civantos discussed that, in the face of global change (political, social and economic), resilience has been the understanding and adaptation of traditional community methods of preservation and management to maintain systems and crops, achieved by giving farmers a stronger platform and way to be heard.

Gábor Oláh and Eszter György followed, with a description of the Minority Heritage pilot and particularly Roma heritage in Hungary. Through three local encounters, in rural, urban and school settings, they were able to bring stakeholders together that would normally not meet and to encourage future partnership developments that could empower Roma communities.

The Small Towns’ heritage pilot’s presentation involved Alexandra Bitušíková, Jira Janáč and Jaroslav Ira and also touched on the impact of global and urban change, which includes young people leaving for cities and towns stagnating. Towns need to reinvent themselves and their identities, which has led to (award winning) regeneration, bringing increased tourism, but was this done with the agreement of residents and are they happy with the results?

Finally, Frederike Berlekamp discussed the Institutional heritage pilot, which had involved work with three diverse museums. At a time when museums are literally redefining themselves, considering who their audiences are and their expectations, museums are developing new partnership, methods, layouts and more interactive personalised services.

After a day and a half of interesting and informative presentations that considered resilience within cultural heritage in a number of ways, there was consensus from all present that this had been a really valuable event.

“The importance of community,” presented by Alima Lee in cooperation with the the Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW)

Films for isolation, a series available on line from April 8 to May 5

The Filmmaker Alima Lee offers a series of short films to rediscover the meaning of belonging and home in this moment of profound isolation.
“Films for isolation includes time-based works of four Black queer artists and their exploration of the self as it is perceived internally. Investigation themes of visibility and home, every piece aims to bring us all closer to the source; remembering what truly matters.”
The series is available for period of four weeks between April and May, each short film will be present online for one week:
1^st week: “A Song About Love” (2019), Rikkí Wright‘s
2^nd week: “Growing Each Day” (2019) by Clifford Prince King
3^rd week: Flesh To Spirit’”(2019), by Alima Lee
4^th week: 5 Things I Know For Sure” (2020) by Sydney Canty
The videos face themes like the complex relationship between sexuality and religion or the way to preserve intimacy in sickness, and they all offers the opportunity to get in confidence with an alternative audio visual production.
More info here

The annual milestone event highlighting best practices in museums, heritage and conservation is to take place in a digital edition

The Best in Heritage goes digital!

Estimating realistically the consequences of a long pandemic, the gathering event in Dubrovnik comprising the conference and the awards will not take place this year, but the 2020 edition of The Best in Heritage is planned, delivering the annual overview of best practices in museums, heritage and conservation. The goal is to offer insights into these award-winning achievements and share these further with the professional and civil society heritage community.

The Best in Heritage will do the following:

produce a series of forty-two video-link interviews with representatives of award-winning achievements from the past year, and releasing them periodically on a YouTube channel over the next months
release the keynote talks by the representatives of our two “Projects of Influence” for 2019: Mr. Ivor Crotty (#1917LIVE, #Romanovs100) & Ms. Monisha Ahmed (LAMO Centre)
publish the yearly conference publication in digital format avaliable online
produce the conference poster exhibition and offer it freely to all interested parties as a printable, high-resolution file
ensure that there are “Project of Influence” recognitions given this year too, for IMAGINES and the core programme

Website for more information: https://www.thebestinheritage.com/

Get in youch: YouTube channel, Twitter and Facebook,

Discover the online archive and be ready for fresh additions.