Case
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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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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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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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Pietanze d’Arte a Domicilio (“Art Dishes Delivery at Home”; Aoulia, 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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View the Mauritshuis at Home. Another way to experience art – listen to paintings at home (Den Haag, Netherlands)
A museum about history is writing history (Galway, Ireland)
An open-air exhibition “Homo absentia” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
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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 case chosen is the production of a short film about the story of Gilgamesh by Macnas, a performance company based in Galway. The story of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest literary stories in the world, is about a tyrannical king who strives to become a god. The Gilgamesh project was supposed to consist 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 (Galway 2020 sd). Background Macnas was founded in Galway in 1986…
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GIAF, Festival of the People (Galway, Ireland)
This case study, the impact of Covid-19 on the Galway International Art Festival (GIAF) has been analysed and evaluated. To welcome live audiences back into venues, GIAF has worked around the clock to ensure the continuance of over 500 events and activities planned, while facing the most challenging circumstances. In addition to an altered live program, GIAF delivered the biggest ever digital program in the history of festivals. To achieve all this, GIAF had to be incredibly creative as this was a new situation for all people involved in the organisation of the festival. Background The organization organizes the world-famous Galway International Arts Festival. It features Irish and international work…
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Local focus boosts local pride; the improvement of cultural tours of a city through a new focus on its citizens (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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GIAF, Festival of the People (Galway, Ireland)
A giant open-air gallery in the streets of Vilnius. Project “Art needs no roof” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation – Digital Games for Adults (Athens, Greece)
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A museum about history is writing history (Galway, Ireland)
The Galway City Museum is, as one might guess by the name, a museum about the history of Galway. In this article, it will be discussed how the museum has changed and innovated during covid-19, and which of these implications they will keep in the future. What really stood out, is that the museum tried to connect with locals even more than before. Besides the fact that this might lead to more visitors, online and physical, it is a really nice way to help with the societal issue of loneliness that the pandemic caused. Background The Galway City Museum was first established in 1971. The repository began with a residual…
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Different cities connected through the “portal” (Lublin, Poland & Vilnius, Lithuania)
A giant open-air gallery in the streets of Vilnius. Project “Art needs no roof” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Corona in the city. A crowd-sourced on- and offline exhibition (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
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View the Mauritshuis at Home. Another way to experience art – listen to paintings at home (Den Haag, Netherlands)
The Mauritshuis had a goal in mind: to attract a younger audience to the museum and bring them in contact with Dutch heritage. To make this possible they created the project ‘View the Mauritshuis with your ears’: an initiative that asks artists to draw inspiration from an artwork from the collection of the museum and to make a song about it. The format was created and used until the planned concert at the end wasn’t an option anymore due to the lockdown in reaction to the spreading coronavirus. The changing of the format to fit these times made the project even better and it became a huge hit, exceeding the…
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From occupied to contaminated – a centenary view on a world in crisis (Antwerpen, Belgium)
In reaction to the first measures against the spread of corona in Belgium, the Flemish-Dutch house of culture and debate deBuren set up an online platform where reactions of artists to the bundle ‘Bezette Stad’ by Paul van Ostaijen and the situation around de corona crisis were posted. The digital city was aptly named ‘De Besmette Stad’ and grew out to be a project that is still being developed, making it difficult, but exciting, to predict the impact it will have on its employees, artists, audiences and the future. Background The Flemish-Dutch house of culture and debate deBuren is an organisation established in 2004 by the Dutch and Flemish government…
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An open-air exhibition “Homo absentia” (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Culture at Home (Italy; nationwide)
View the Mauritshuis at Home. Another way to experience art – listen to paintings at home (Den Haag, Netherlands)
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Land Art Weekend 2020 (Flevopolder, the Netherlands)
The limitations of the corona pandemic urged Landscape Art Flevoland to develop a more individual form of the Land Art Weekend, a festival that annually highlights nine land artworks in the province of Flevoland, the Netherlands. In order to organize the Land Art Weekend in 2020, Land art Flevoland developed a series of ten educational podcasts and nine atmospheric playlists to enable individual visits to the artworks. As the Land Art Weekend was one of the few art productions accessible to audiences in the summer of 2020, it received a generous amount of coverage in the local and national media. The program was broadcasted in the Land Art Weekend during…
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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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Pietanze d’Arte a Domicilio (“Art Dishes Delivery at Home”; Aoulia, Italy)
Local focus boosts local pride; the improvement of cultural tours of a city through a new focus on its citizens (Rijeka, Croatia)
View the Mauritshuis at Home. Another way to experience art – listen to paintings at home (Den Haag, Netherlands)
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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…
