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The museum invites to document the history of COVID-19 together (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Life because of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot around the world. This period will surely go down in history. Therefore, the National Museum of Lithuania invited people to contribute to the reflection of this period in history and to share items that may become museum exhibits in the future. That could be anything: diaries with the described experiences and reflections of pandemic time, things that people do not imagine everyday life during quarantine, e.g., books, drawings, games diversifying limited leisure time, even original masks, etc. Tangible material was especially valuable to the museum but virtual material such as digital photos, videos were also welcome. Background The National Museum…
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Cinema screenings on the runway at Vilnius Airport – project “Aerocinema – the journey begins” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Photo project “Quarantine windows” – daily routine of Lithuanians during the quarantine captured in photos (Kaunas, Lithuania)
Museum brought art to people’s homes (Vilnius, Lithuania)
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Helping children with Surprise reading service (Gouda, the Netherlands)
When the Public Library in Gouda was closed during the lockdown, they wanted to keep children reading so they wouldn’t fall behind with school. Therefore, the library called the Surprise reading service to life. It set an example of an organization where the employees were knowledgeable, involved, moved quickly, and came up with a very personalized solution. Together with their network they made sure the service was online and advertised in no time. In the end 600 bright orange bags with 4000 personalized books were being prepared for the kids of Gouda. The library will expand the surprise reading service to adults if they need to close down again. Background…
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Little Travelers: Learning the history of the National Garden (Athens, Greece)
7,000 trees from all over the world and 4,000 bushes become the setting for an exploration game in the National Garden of Athens. This is an initiative of the Onassis Foundation, where it invites families to discover the National Garden and learn its history. The action consists of 2 meetings, one online and one live. Background The Alexander S. Onassis Foundation was created by Aristotle Onassis to honor the memory of his son Alexander. The foundation is one of the largest in Europe, using its assets to create scholarship and prize programs. The Foundation aims at promoting Greek culture and civilization throughout the world and in Greece. The first international…
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Playing at home! Cycladic Art Museum (Athens, Greece)
The Cycladic Art Museum, through its website, invited children to play online; learning information about life in ancient Greece (children’s toys, food, clothing) Background The Cycladic Art Museum, is a living cultural institution in the centre of Athens that focuses on the promotion of the ancient civilizations of the Aegean and Cyprus, with special emphasis on Cycladic art of the 3rd millennium BC. It is a Legal Entity under Private Law supervised by the Ministry of Culture withοut state funding. The Museum has operated since 1986 to house and display the private collection of antiquities of Dolly and Nikolaos Goulandris. Since then, it has expanded significantly and today holds one…
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Walking Tours In Dordrecht – From an artist’s perspective (Dordrecht, the Netherlands)
Walking has been a popular activity during the pandemic. The walking tours of Dordrechts Museum are unique because they show Dordrecht through the perspectives of a Dutch landscape artist. The tours were especially geared towards landscape artists who worked in the surroundings or had a connection with the city such as Albert Cuyp. Dordrechts museum continues to explore the outside as an extra museum space and more outside activities have followed. Background Dordrechts museum is not only one museum, but encompasses five cultural institutions combined into one organization called Dordrechts Museum, which has the same name as the biggest of the five cultural institutions. The other four institutions are: Huis…
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Unlock(down) the Advent Calendar (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
The Kleine Komedie created the Adventskalender, every day in December, people could open up an advent ‘window’ at the theatre’s website and could watch regular artists of the theater perform online acts. These varied from cabaret, singing, cooking and storytelling. All artists decided to participate, many cabaret artist in the Netherlands were not eligible for the government support packages and thus were drastically impacted. Therefore the most important impact was economic as it provided the in-house artists with an income as every performance was paid for. And, with 1.7 million views worldwide, it also showed that there was a very enthusiastic audience. Background De Kleine Komedie was built in 1786…
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Fasten your seatbelts, next stop: Boijmans Ahoy drive-thru (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
Whatever’s possible – A growing museum against the odds (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
View the Mauritshuis at Home. Another way to experience art – listen to paintings at home (Den Haag, Netherlands)
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Creating art at home (Leiden, the Netherlands)
Museum De Lakenhal’s developed assignments to develop your creativity in your own environment in its “thuisatelier’. This allowed the museum to continue to inspire visitors and contribute to its goal of personal development online. This case is appealing because of its involvement of real artists who think out the assignments, its attractive design, and its real fun, and easy to carry out creative assignments. It was mainly very attractive for parents with no special artistic material at their disposal during the lock-down. It could be learned that one does not always need expensive artistic material to get creative, making the threshold for starting on a creative project at home much…
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Fasten your seatbelts, next stop: Boijmans Ahoy drive-thru (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
Museum Boijmans organized a drive-thru exhibition during the Covid-19 pandemic. A very spontaneous idea with a very short preparation time. Nevertheless, it became a success and was completely sold out. The museum took a big risk to start this project without any fundings or partnerships, everything worked out and the drive-thru received great publicity from all over the world. In the end the museum reached a new audience, strengthened their partnerships and found a way of making their collection visible during the lockdown. Background Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is one of the oldest art museums of The Netherlands. The museum offers a broad variety of artworks from medieval paintings to…
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Oerol takes the island Terschelling to its imagination (West-Terschelling, Netherlands)
Living in a world during a pandemic leaves people with all kinds of challenges. This also applies for the Oerol Festival, a yearly cultural festival that takes place on Terschelling. The Oerol festival is a true location based performance, in which location theatre, nature and landscape are inseparable from Oerol. During the pandemic they turned tables. Instead of being on Terschelling, they created an online edition, called ‘’The Imaginary Island’’. They succeeded in giving people the island feeling at home and even reached lots a new and larger audience (Oerol n.d.). Background Every year, for ten days long, during the Oerol festival, the whole island of Terschelling is transformed into…
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National Opera & Ballet: Keep on singing and dancing! (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
The Dutch National Opera & Ballet shared its most precious treasures, old and new, with audiences around the world through an online platform they created. The organization still wanted people to enjoy opera and ballet at all costs, so the platform was realized in no time. Fragments, live streams, podcasts, games and much more were part of it. It took some hard work and a lot of creativity, but the organization has put in place an outstanding initiative. They reached people they could not reach before and after them more institutions followed with similar initiatives (Nationale Opera & Ballet n.d.). Background Dutch National Opera & Ballet is a relatively young…
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Mrkopalj, the best place ever, an online local experience (Mrkopalj, Croatia)
When it was clear that Hoge Fronten could not go ahead with a performance with the local community of Mrkopalj, they went ahead with a completely different online performance, organized from the Netherlands together with the local community of Mrkopalj. They could only do so because of the research material they had collected during their visits as artist in residence By bringing this material from the back to the foreground it became part of the performance. The initiative has unveiled their working process and is perceived as a good practice of how to co-create with local communities. Background Hoge Fronten is a Dutch performing arts foundation situated in an old…
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Local focus boosting local pride (Rijeka, Croatia)
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Georgy Litichevsky, Hypothetical Dances (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Georgy Litichevsky’s Hypothetical Dances is a notebook of autonomous educational action for parents and children. The notebooks are aimed at families and offer online a variety of activities for different ages of children and young people, while everyone can use them at will depending on their interests. The notebooks were organized based on material from the permanent collections and exhibitions of the bodies that make up MOMus in recent years, were updated based on the new conditions and are now ready to use in the air! Background The Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki – MOMus was born from the merger of four Thessaloniki-based museums/art venues (the…
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For these we fought…. Antiquities and the Greek Revolution (Athens, Greece)
2021 marked the 200 years from the Greek Revolution for Independence for the Ottoman occupation. The largest museum of Greece celebrated the anniversary with a digital exhibition (due to the covid-19 restrictions) linking the fight for freedom and the protection of the Greek antiquities Background The National Archaeological Museum is the largest museum in Greece and one of the most important in the world. Originally destined to receive all the 19th century excavations, mainly from Attica and other parts of the country, it gradually took the form of a central National Archaeological Museum and was enriched with finds from all parts of the Greek world. His rich collections, enumerating more…
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Acropolis Digital Museum, a new world (Athens, Greece)
A Web portal of modern aesthetics that captures the operation and activities of the Museum and provides multidimensional information and entertainment. Presents the Museum and its exhibition spaces, gives information for visiting, periodic exhibitions, activities, events, school and family activities, research, maintenance, new technologies. At the same time, it presents, for the first time on a Greek museum website, all of them making it accessible to the world community, the 2,156 exhibits that includes today, to which will be gradually added and those kept on Archaeological repositories of the Museum, accompanied by extensive descriptions, interactive glossary, bibliography, photos, drawings and in many cases videos. Background Located in the historic area…
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#snfccAtHome (Kallithea, Greece)
The most active cultural institution in Greece, reformed its program offering all their activities (music shows, theatrical performances, exhibitions, activities for all ages) online and free through its platforms in social media. SNFCC also recreated on of its spaces to a drive-in during the lockdown, where you could watch movies and live shows from the safety of your car Background One of the world’s leading private philanthropic organizations, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation provides grants to nonprofit organizations in the arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. Since 1996, the SNF has committed more than €2.6 billion through more than 4,300 grants to nonprofit organizations in 124 countries…
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Lockdown Festival Malta (Nationwide, Malta)
The Lockdown Festival Malta was the first online initiative in Malta after the pandemic hit. The collaborative approach behind the creation of this event and the early stages of the Covid times in which it happened, makes it an interesting case within the Maltese context. Background No formal organisation or institutions was behind the organisation of this online festival. The organisers were three creatives Zoe Camillieri, Dancer and performing artist Kiet Bonnici, Visual Artist Vegard Flatøy, writer, musician and small-festivals organizer with the assistance of a small event planning company, BEWYLD, spearheaded by Niels Plotard and Shawn James. The event was self sustained and developed using three main tools: Personal…
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MUŻA: Masterpieces in Virtual Reality (Valletta, Malta)
An exhibition of 13 works from the late 15th to the mid-18th centuries was held both at the premises of the MUŻA, the Maltese National Museum of Fine Arts, and on their website through a Virtual Reality tour free of charge. The Digitisation Unit of Heritage Malta realised this production completely in-house in order to enhance accessibility to the exhibition during Covid times and in the effort to make baroque art meet the interest of the younger generations. Background MUŻA is the Maltese National-Community Art Museum, previously known as National Museum of Fine Arts (Mużew Nazzjonali tal-Arti, in Maltese), before changing its premises from Admiralty House to the Auberge d’Italie…
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The Dr Peter J Shield Collection: an invite down memory lane (Valletta, Malta)
One year after acquiring a photography collection from Dr Shield, Heritage Malta engaged with its audience, during the first lockdown, by regularly sharing some of these pictures and involving the general public, inviting them to share via email any information they might have about them. Most pictures were from the late 1950’s and showing all sorts of local subjects. Leveraging nostalgia in such a delicate period, while raising awareness about the recent past and making the audience feel part, feeling considered within the historical research process is an approach worth to be observed and further considered in its implications. Background Dr Peter J. Shield is a retired archaeologist.award-winning photographer and…
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Orchestra Resounds: a symphonic digital transformation (Valletta, Malta)
The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra has put in place a whole range of online events in order to cope with the closures of all venues due to the global pandemic. This effort was also supported by the bulking up of their Events and Marketing Team. The pandemic acted as a catalyst for their digitalisation process, bringing remarkable results in enhancing exponentially their audience involvement and engagement on digital platforms. Background The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in April 1968, under the name of Manoel Theatre Orchestra, regrouping the musicians from the former Commander-in-Chief orchestra of the British Mediterranean Fleet. In September 1997 it stopped being the theater’s resident orchestra, becoming independent…
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Batman Gżirjan: co-creation in marginalised communities in times of COVID (Gzira, Malta)
Batman Gżirjan was a co-created and community-focused artistic and research project, carried out by the artist Kristina Borg. The setting of the process was the maritime town of Gzira, in Malta. The main aim of the project was to raise awareness within the community of their relation with the heritage surrounding them (and their urban environment in general), through creative means, tackling their memories as well as the current perspective of two groups of local participants. The research workshops evolved in a final co-created performance. The pandemic posed many challenges to the research and performative side of the project. Background The project is curated and directed by a local artist…
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No. 49 – Fit for a Queen (Pietà, Malta)
Heritage Malta, in cooperation with and sponsored by a real estate agency, launched a virtual 3d tour of the Villa Guardamangia, which was the Summer residence of Queen Elizabeth II from 1949 to 1951. The virtual experience doesn’t reproduce the museum experience, but gives access to a recent acquisition from the agency and acts as a blueprint of the current degraded state of the property, as it enters a long project of restoration. Exclusives tours have been organised for members of the organization (subscribers), hence this virtual tour also offered a marketing leverage to get more people to subscribe, showing that exclusive perks, such as this, can be offered. Background…
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From TV Show to Contemporary Art Gallery: Through the People’s Lens (Valletta, Malta)
Fondazzjoni Kreattività is an institution born with the task of managing the premises of the St James Cavalier fort, in Valletta (Malta), after this was allocated as a space for the Malta’s National Centre for Creativity. Therefore, the link between the activities carried out from the organisation and its own premises is really strong. When the global pandemic hit, these boundaries had to be broken and overcome, due to the forced closure. The exhibition Through the People’s Lens: A Quarantine Diary is an example of how Spazju Kreattiv (the name of the programme managed and curated by Fondazzjoni Kreattività) reacted to this new reality and how the institution reacted to…
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Forma Mentis: A Windmill of Art and Community (Birkirkara, Malta)
Following more than one year of pandemic, through different forms of restrictions to private and public art spaces, plans of cultural centers still need to adapt. Rather than focussing on virtually re-creating the exhibition’s experience, the Gabriel Caruana Foundation, with the Forma Mentis initiative, tackles the role of Art Therapy in relieving what’s been named “pandemic fatigue” or any other mental issues arising in connection to the pandemic. Initially designed for persons at higher risk of marginalisation and exclusion, the initiative broadened its scope to the whole community. Background The Mill – Art, Culture and Crafts Centre is located in Birkirkara, in Malta, at one of the busiest crossroads of…
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Underwater Malta – Virtual Museum: an innovative and state-of-the-art public access strategy for underwater heritage (Nationwide, Malta)
Given Malta’s strategic location at the center of the Mediterranean, the seafloor surrounding the island holds hidden heritage from almost every period of history, including a 2700-year-old Phoenecian shipwreck, ships, planes, and submarines. Thanks to cross-disciplinary collaboration and advances in technology, in June 2020 a virtual museum was launched (first of its kind in the Mediterranean) making this hidden heritage accessible. Using 3D modeling, virtual reality, and other media, the website aims to provide access to and share Malta’s unique underwater cultural heritage with all members of the public, to create a digital record to help preserve and protect Malta’s submerged cultural heritage, and to promote and stimulate responsible diving…
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Quarantined Italians singing from their balconies (Nationwide, Italy)
Millions of people around Italy have been singing from their balconies at 18.00 in an effort to keep up morale during the lockdown in March 2020. Background This flashmob was organised spontaneously by people around Italy and was promoted quickly via social media. Gathered under the hashtag #unitimalontani (united but distanced), the call launched through social media, invited people around Italy to open their windows, go out in the garden or on the balcony, and sing together. The appointments were fixed for 18.00. The initiative became viral and was supported by millions of people around Italy, including popular musicians, politics, municipalities. Description People across Italy have been singing from their balconies…
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Venice and American Studio Glass Exhibition (Venezia, Italy)
“Venezia e lo Studio Glass Americano”is the first exhibition focused on the influence that aesthetics and traditional Venetian glassmaking techniques have had on American Studio Glass from the 1960s to the present. In 2020 the programme included real exhibitions with augmented and virtual reality, guided tours in presence and online, virtual events. Background LE STANZE DEL VETRO is a pluriennial, both a cultural project and an exhibition space on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore (Venice, Italy). It is dedicated to the study and the exhibition of modern and contemporary forms of glass art. The initiative is realized by Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti and…
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Leonardo Da Vinci 3D. Immersive and Interactive Experience (Milan, Italy)
Leonardo Da Vinci 3D is a multisensory exhibition dedicated to life and secrets of the Renaissance genius. The futuristic spirit of Leonardo was brought to life by a high-tech multi-projection system that offered an educational and entertaining experience to the participants: images and music moving along ceilings, walls and columns, holograms, virtual and augmented reality. Background The “Leonardo Da Vinci 3D Exhibition” was firstly organised in 2019, before Covid-pandemic, when the City of Milan decided to celebrate the fifth centenary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death. The exhibition was organised by a private company Medartec Distribution and by the City of Milan, in collaboration with Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research…
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Tuscan Museums for Alzheimer Patients (Toscana, Italy)
Tuscan Museum System for Alzheimer’s (MTA) develops and implements programs dedicated to people living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. During the pandemic, in collaboration with the museums, they organised interactive activities for people with dementia and their caregivers. The project aimed to raise awareness on issues related to Alzheimer’s and dementia. Their activities helped to make culture accessible to people with Alzheimer’s disease in challenging times of Covid. Background For almost ten years, Tuscan museums have been developing and implementing programs dedicated to people living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. In order to coordinate and enhance their action more efficiently, in 2020 they formed a centralised…
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Culture at Home (Italy; nationwide)
An online project for promotion of cultural heritage in the digital field in order to respond to the emergency that Italian cultural sites were experiencing due to COVID-19. The Culture at Home platform, created in March 2020, has made it possible to share ideas, information and experiences about cultural heritage sites of Italy, when it was forbidden to visit them during the lockdown. Culture at Home platform offered four sections – Culture Workshop, Edu Culture, Culture AudioGuides and Culture Stories – and different contents online in order to educate, entertain and accompany Italians during the lockdown. Background The platform was created by Coop Culture, the largest Cooperative Society operating in…
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Art and Science Virtual Exhibition “Viral Passion” (Napoli, Italy)
The virtual exhibition “Viral Passion” represents a journey into the world of viruses, in order to raise awareness about the main viruses in human history and to encourage visitors to choose reliable resources of information. Background The exhibition “Viral Passion” is realised by the scientific and creative staff of Città della Scienza (The City of Science). It is an innovative complex consisting of a science center, a business innovation center, a training center, a fab laboratory, and a conference center. Since 1996 Fondazione IDIS has been managing Città della Scienza in Naples, in the former industrial area of Bagnoli. The IDIS Foundation has been operating in Italy since 1987 and…
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Different cities connected through the “portal” (Lublin, Poland & Vilnius, Lithuania)
On May 26th of 2021 the installation “Portal” connected two cities – Vilnius in Lithuania and Lublin in Poland, which is historically inseparable from our country. The futuristic installation turned out to be exactly what was lacking in a world tired of pandemic travel restrictions. With the slogan “Portal – a bridge to the united world” the project brings us the symbolic idea. The “portal” invites people to experience our world as it is “united and one – without borders, prejudices, and labels of us and them” – states authors of the project. Background An installation connecting Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, with the Polish city Lublin is an idea…
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Photo project “Quarantine windows” – daily routine of Lithuanians during the quarantine captured in photos (Kaunas, Lithuania)
“Quarantine windows” was a photography project implemented during the first lockdown. With the beginning of the first quarantine our usual life was “suspended” for a while, no travels, no meetings with relatives and friends, no restaurants, no shops and so on. We had to get used to living between the four walls temporarily and look at the world through the computer screens or… windows. Therefore, the project “Quarantine windows” aimed to reveal what quarantine of various people (both families and individuals, seniors and children, etc.) looks like, to convey their moods and emotions through the portraits. Background The authors of the idea were the community program “Fluxus Labas” of the…
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Cinema screenings on the runway at Vilnius Airport – project “Aerocinema – the journey begins” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Vilnius international film festival “Kino pavasaris” (English – Cinema spring), which has moved to a virtual space due to the quarantine, has presented a new idea for film screening – project “Aerocinema – the journey begins”. In May of 2020 at the Vilnius Airport area, where normally planes take off and land, a drive-in cinema was opened. Spectators longing for the spectacular experiences and travels had the opportunity “to fly” in ever-changing directions for four weeks with the help of a giant screen. Over 60 cinema trips were organized at Vilnius Airport and about 13 500 people took part in them with their cars. Background The Vilnius international film festival…
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Photo project “Quarantine windows” – daily routine of Lithuanians during the quarantine captured in photos (Kaunas, Lithuania)
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Photography exhibition inspired by the COVID-19 hotline in Lithuania No. 1808 (Vilnius, Lithuania)
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Photography exhibition inspired by the COVID-19 hotline in Lithuania No. 1808 (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Lithuanian photographer Andrius Repšys in his photo work series examines probably one of the most relevant topics in the world – the impact of coronavirus on people and their daily lives. Inspired by the COVID-19 hotline in Lithuania No. 1808, the photographer came out with the idea to organize the exhibition „Project 1808. Quarantine“. The creation of the photo series started at the beginning of quarantine in Lithuania. The photographer captured the central squares of different Lithuanian cities from a drone at the one exact time – 18:08 h. The series of photos not only documents a historical event, but also examines topics related to it and raises the questions…
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Covid REMIX: Toronto Public Library and friends remix wartime posters for the pandemic (Toronto, Canada)
In the depths of Covid lockdown, the Toronto Public Library provoked the public with a creative challenge: to pick a WWII propaganda poster from its online collection, and adapt it for Covidtimes. This simple, cheap, low-tech initiative proved a perfect vehicle for people’s pent-up desire to create, share, and contribute, especially during those unusual times. Many submissions were created and shared, boosting awareness and appreciation of the library’s collections. By welcoming the public’s creativity, humour, and imagination, the library showed itself to be responsive, relevant, and fun. Background The Toronto Public Library is one of the world’s busiest urban public library systems, with 100 branches across the city, 10.5 million…
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Activity E-Book – Creative at home, Nitra Gallery (Athens, Greece)
At the beginning of the lockdown, the cultural activity seemed to be dormant. The art, however, must be creative. The Nitra Gallery, following that “rule”, invited its collaborating artists to contribute to creating activities for kids who stayed at home. The ultimate goal was to collect all the activities in an online book, so kids not only stay imaginative but also familiarize themselves with contemporary artists, learn techniques and create their own works with the help of their parents. Background Nitra Gallery is the continuation of Atrion (founded in 1994). When Atrion turned to Nitra in 2013, under the initiative of Aliki Tsirliagkou, it moved to a new location at…
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Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation – Digital Games for Adults (Athens, Greece)
The Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation implemented an online activity to enhance creativity and self-confidence, transform introversion into expression, and encourage the use of digital tools from the elderly. Background The museum was designed from the onset to house the Collection of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation. The collection focuses on modern and contemporary art by Greek and foreign artists, including rare works by masters of the European avant-garde such as Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Degas, Rodin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Picasso, Braque, Léger, Miró, Giacometti, Balthus, as well as works by distinguished modern Greek painters including Parthenis, Bouzianis, Vassiliou, Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, Tsarouchis, Moralis, Tetsis and others. The building is a…
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Visiting landscapes inside and out (Nijmegen, Netherlands)
During the start of COVID-19, the Valkhof museum has not been idle. During the first two months of the pandemic, Valkhof committed itself to continue to stimulate the visitors as a museum. They did this by creating the Binnenste Buitenland exhibition. With the help of a hidden collection of the museum, one is taken back in time to the landscapes and thus the source of inspiration for 19th-century artists. The creation of the exhibition did not go smoothly, nevertheless, the museum has achieved its greatest goal; to keep visitors active and connect them with the museum and Nijmegen Background The Valkhof Museum is located nearby the Valkhof Park in the…
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Culture to the Courtyards. Kaunas transformed into open air scenes (Kaunas, Lithuania)
The quarantine affected our daily routine, but life didn’t stop. During the first lockdown Kaunas, the European Capital of Culture 2022, introduced the project “Culture to the Courtyards”. This initiative brought culture to the citizens’ courtyards without prejudicing the quarantine restrictions of that time. Background Project “Culture to the Courtyards” was an initiative of public institution “Kaunas 2022”. The institution was established to implement the cultural program “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022”. In 2015 it began the journey to becoming a European Capital of Culture with the slogan “from temporary to contemporary”. As it is stated in the official website “The organization aims at the union of cultural…
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Museum brought art to people’s homes (Vilnius, Lithuania)
When cultural life moved to a virtual space Lithuanian National Museum of Art together with the information partner Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LNRT) decided “to bring art to people’s home” and implemented the project “30 Artworks, 30 Creators, 30 Weeks”. In this project 30 renowned Lithuanian artists (painters, writers, musicians, architects, designers, and others) were invited to choose the artwork in any exposition of Lithuanian National Museum of Art department and in the video story tell the audience why that artwork is important and special to them. These videos were placed on the websites of the Museum and LNRT and their social networks, also shown in the LNRT morning…
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An open-air exhibition “Homo absentia” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Cultural institutions during the lockdown were looking for the different ways of how to reach their audience. Mostly that was the virtual activities which could not last long because people started to get tired of the “online” everything. Moreover, virtual exhibitions couldn’t in most cases replace the need to be face-to-face with an artwork. Therefore, the Lewben Art Foundation together with the partners organized an open-air exhibition “Homo Absentia” (The Person is Missing/Absent). This exhibition created a unique opportunity for the residents of Vilnius to change their routes and to visit the open-air exhibition on their daily routine. Background Exhibition was organized by the Lewben Art Foundation together with the…
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Culture to the Courtyards. Kaunas transformed into open air scenes (Kaunas, Lithuania)
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Photography exhibition inspired by the COVID-19 hotline in Lithuania No. 1808 (Vilnius, Lithuania)
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Discover Jewish heritage with(out) leaving home (Kaunas, Lithuania)
Kaunas Vincas Kudirka Public Library adapted to the quarantine conditions and invited their visitors to try the unusual experience – the interactive and modern map of Jewish cultural heritage. This map allowed people to “walk” around the city and learn more about the Jewish cultural heritage in Kaunas without leaving home. An interactive map in four languages allowed (and still do) people to visit virtually more than 40 cultural monuments, see the unique archival footage, play an interactive game, or take a walk around the city’s heritage sites on their own. This interactive map was announced as the most memorable Kaunas cultural initiative of 2020 because of the impact on…
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Pietanze d’Arte a Domicilio / Art Delivery at Home (Apulia, Italy)
During the Covid-19 restrictions for theatres and cultural centres, the project “Art Dishes Delivery” offered a delivery service of the artistic performances at home. The artist chosen from the proposed menu reached the public at home (garden or terrace – open space). It was possible to book a performance (theatre, music, poetry, dance) lasting up to fifteen minutes. The proposals of the Asteria Space menu were available in the cities of Palo del Colle and Bitonto (Aoulia, Italy) every Friday from February 19th 2021. Background ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE “ASTERIA SPACE” (Cultural association “ASTERIA SPACE”) is a private cultural centre for the artists belonging to five categories – theatre/dance, music, writing, visual…
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Opera and ballet online in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture (Milan, Italy)
Teatro alla Scala, Milan shared its most precious treasures with audiences around the world through Google Arts & Culture, including: 69 tours with a Street View, Ballet and opera online, and over 259,000 digitised images from the theatre’s archives, including sketches and pages from a rare manuscript editions. Background Teatro alla Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). Most of Italy’s greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. The theatre is regarded as…
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La Cultura non si ferma (“Culture never stops”; Nationwide, Italy)
“Culture never stops!” is a page of the Cultural Heritage Ministry website, which brings together virtual initiatives organized by State-owned cultural sites and the entertainment, music and audiovisual organisations during the Covid-19 emergency. Background The Ministry of Culture (Italian: Ministero della Cultura – MiC, previously Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the historical monuments. MiC’s headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (in central Rome) and the current Minister of Culture is Dario Franceschini. It was set up in 1974 as the Ministry for Cultural Assets and Environments. The Ministry is made…
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COVID-19 Vaccination Hub at the Museum (Lecce, Italy)
In Italy, all museums were closed due to coronavirus restrictions. The Museum Castromediano of Lecce, Puglia’s oldest museum, whose large archaeological collection dates back to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages, has re-opened its doors during the lockdown in March 2021 as a COVID-19 vaccination hub. Thousands of people can get their vaccine and look at specially-selected exhibitions at the site for free. Background The Museum “Sigismondo Castromediano” is the oldest public museum in Apulia. Founded in 1868 by Sigismondo Castromediano, a 19th-century Lecce patriot and archaeologist, it traces the history of Salento from prehistory to the Messapian civilisation and 20th-century art. Target group (usually): local people, tourists. The Museum has…
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Corona in the city. A crowd-sourced on- and offline exhibition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
The digital exhibition Corona in the city is about the impact of Corona on the city and its inhabitants and documenting this for the future real time. After one year more than 3000 photo’s, video’s, story’s, drawings, magazines, columns, letters, poems, interviews and songs have been collected and are shared on the exhibition website. The digital exhibition has been visited by more than 150.000 visitors in one year (15 may 2020 – 15 may 2021). For the corona in the city exhibition, not only the general public but also many organizations joined in, of which local strongly embedded media partners were most prominent. And this lead to greater exposure and…
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Gilgamesh: bringing spectacle to the big screen (Galway, Ireland)
The Gilgamesh project consisted of a creative program with a series of public performances during the celebration of Galway 2020, but due to COVID-19 this program had to be adapted. A new plan was devised and Macnas made a short film about Gilgamesh. The film premiered at several theatres. This new medium gave Macnas the opportunity to redevelop their art form and set up a new infrastructure that will remain after the project. Besides that, Macnas’s work is now accessible for a whole new audience. In conclusion, this project by Macnas can be seen as an example of adaptability and inventiveness for other theatre makers and the next generation of…
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Local focus boosting local pride (Rijeka, Croatia)
When the audience and the points of interest both turned from international to local in The Legacy of Rijeka tour, the Kvarner tourist guide association has experienced positive effects. First of all, the local audience, with their additional knowledge of local, personal, and hidden stories has had a very positive impact on the formal knowledge base of the tour guides which has improved the quality and liveliness of their tours. Furthermore, because most art projects in the tour had become projects in which locals and local artists had participated, the tour has boosted a feeling of local pride. Background The Kvarner Tourist Guide Association was founded in 1998. The association…
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A giant open-air gallery in the streets of Vilnius. Project “Art needs no roof” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
The project was born in response to quarantine restrictions that prevented art galleries from operating, so artists could not exhibit and sell their works. Willing to support the artists, Vilnius City Municipality together with the outdoor advertising company JCDecaux Lietuva implemented project “Art needs no roof” and invited artist to showcase their works on billboards free of charge. In this way, Vilnius became one giant open-air art gallery and connected artists with art lovers. Background The project “Art needs no roof” was an initiative of Vilnius City Municipality together with the outdoor advertising company JCDecaux Lietuva. Vilnius City Municipality is governmental institution operating in the public sector whereas the JCDecaux…
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School Life and Education Museum – How to adapt to the COVID-19 reality (Athens, Greece)
With the outbreak of the pandemic, Museums and Cultural Organizations were amongst those who suffered the most severe consequences. The School Life and Education Museum reorganized its operation and redesigned its educational programs and activities so that they could be utilized and implemented online or in open spaces. Background The School Life and Education Museum operates under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Education and is a member of the Network of Museums and Cultural Institutions of Athens. The collections of the Museum include objects from school life (one of the biggest collections of schoolbooks, costumes, archives, photographs) and tokens of intangible cultural heritage (audio documents, testimonies, interviews on…
