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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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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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From occupied to contaminated – a centenary view on a world in crisis (Antwerpen, Belgium)
In reaction to the first measures against the spread of the coronavirus in Belgium, the Flemish-Dutch house for culture and debate deBuren set up an online platform, where reactions of artists to Paul van Ostaijen’s poetry collection Bezette Stad (‘Occupied City’) and the situation around the corona crisis were combined and posted. The digital city was aptly named Besmette Stad (‘Infected City’) and grew into a project that is still being developed, making it difficult, but exciting, to predict its impact on its employees, artists, audiences, and the future. Background The Flemish-Dutch house for culture and debate deBuren is an organisation established in 2004 by the Dutch and Flemish governments,…
