Digital Innovation for Audience Engagement in Museums
Abstract
Museums have been hit both financially and socially by the COVID-19 crisis and by the global decrease in tourism. Concurrently, this has accelerated the digital transformation of the sector. This proposal asserts that digital technologies can offer solutions across all museum activities, including the collection of artefacts, their conservation and study, interpretation and exhibition of museum collections, and marketing/managing online and onsite visitors. Digitalization can also be a significant opportunity for museums to strengthen their role as a bridge between local identity, local communities, and global dissemination. With this research, we want to explore new ways of participation, audience engagement, and sustainable financing for museums and other cultural institutions, particularly during and after crises such as the coronavirus pandemic. We also want to look for new and sustainable business models in which digitization is an integral part of museums' activities and their overall earning model. Thus, offering and exploring the huge potential of digitization for innovation, experimentation and inclusive collaboration between the cultural heritage sector and technological sectors.
However, the DINAMUS project acknowledges also that across Europe, the experience of the digital shift is unequal and fragmented. This is due to different contexts, governance models, competencies, and investments. Consequently, the ultimate aim of the DINAMUS project is to promote close interaction and collaboration between museums and with local, regional, and national communities and authorities, as well as cooperation with research institutions and the cultural and creative stakeholders (e.g. artists, actors, interpretation specialists, designers) to attract and engage the public and in particular young people through digitization. By means of two separate surveys, we not only want to get a better understanding of the needs of the museums (also taking into account the differences between museums in metropolis and small towns) but also want to get better insights into the needs of their audiences when it comes to digital participation in relation to physical participation. This will give us a better understanding of what is not only possible but also desirable in terms of audience engagement and the development of sustainable business models.
These audience survey and survey of museum professionals will be the starting point for our research and for a Ph.D. research into digital innovations from museums. Based on the findings of the surveys, a trajectory will be launched together with small and medium-sized museums to enable them to make the digital transition.
Funding
BOF: DINAMUS
Researchers
Prof. dr. Annick Schramme (promotor)