-
Being there – virtually: Robots in the Zeeuws museum (Middelburg, the Netherlands)
In order to enhance access to the museum for audiences with physical impairments – and more general for access in times of restrictions, the Zeeuws Museum experimented with a distantly operated robot tour guide. Apart from technical and digital issues that could be dealt with by innovation of the robot and its control, participants were happy with this form of contact. They did remark on the pleasure of always having a real person available in this way of visiting the museum. The experiment was also a positive experience for the museum itself as it provided for continuity during the lockdown phases of the pandemic. Background The Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Whatever’s possible – A growing museum against the odds (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
In order to combat the cultural exclusion the lockdown created, Museum Het Schipcame up with a highly intimate way of keeping their public close to them. After two years of hard work, the just-opened exhibition ‘Bruno Taut – Beyond Fantasy’ could only be visited for six days before the museum had to close its doors. Instead of moving their exhibition online they offered guided digital tours for one or two people at the time, keeping up with their tradition of dialogue while presenting what the museum had to offer. Though small, the museum proved to house creative and involved staff members who did everything they could with what they had,…
