The Creative Museum wishes to create the conditions for museums, makers and creative industries to fully participate in the creation of a more dynamic, inclusive and creative society base on knowledge innovation as set by the EU 2020 Strategy. Museums face a number of challenges – they are expected to be learning spaces but to also provide learning opportunities for communities including youth and adults. The proposed project aims to bring several partners together with different areas of expertise to develop co-created programmes and to encourage visitors to engage with collections in new ways. The partnership will test the ways these different organisations engage with each other and to articulate methodologies of shared best practice. The Creative Museum project aims and objectives are: - Analysis of current creative practices as a starting point which will lead to further activities - Collaborations with Maker communities - traditional crafts, skills and techniques - Engage audiences in co-creation/co-curating processes - Collaborate with creative Industries sector and entrepreneurs - Encourage audiences to have an active role in their visitor experience - Provide a platform for cultural exploration and debate on issues of public interest - Strengthen the professional community of European museum educators, staff, makers and creative industries - Cap Sciences. One of 6 key science centres in France, has important networks in the science sector e.g. ESCITE. Staff involved x 3. - Heritec provides consultancy services to the heritage sector specifically around the areas of audience development and public engagement. Staff involved x 1 - MuseoMix is a collaborative association which experiments co-create interactive solutions and new experiences for visitors in museums and galleries. Staff involved x 2. - Radiona Zagreb Maker Space, Croatia delivers educational programming in museums and heritage, using hi-tech and innovative methodologies. Staff and makers involved x 6. - The Chester Beatty Library is a unique museum housing a collection of European, Middle Eastern Asian/East Asian rare books, manuscripts, religious materials and decorative arts. It has an active intercultural learning programme. Staff involved x 2. - IBACN of the Region Emilia-Romagna supports and advises the Regional Government in policy making and acts as an advisory body in the field of cultural heritage, including museums, libraries, archives, natural and built heritage. Staff involved x 2. - Finnish Museums Association (FMA) is the central organisation and information centre for museums in Finland. Staff involved x 1. - Museene i Sør Trøndelag (MiST) is a network of 9 museums and 150 staff, based in Southern Trøndelag. It specialises in museum management and development, education, communication. Staff involved x 2. - Amitié is an Italian research centre, focusing on education and training, with experience in the provision of support and management services. Staff involved x 2. The proposed activities and methodologies will be explored by a number of partners who specialise in digital media, new technologies, traditional arts and crafts as well as science. - 7 partner meetings, 6 of which will be attached to dissemination events - 6 Maker-in-Residencies (UK, Ireland, France, Norway, Croatia and Finland). - Mentoring and workshops for partners with invited consultants - Dedicated website managed by Cap Sciences with input from partners - Recommendations and guidelines for creative practices - Study and analysis of best creative practices in Europe - Documentation of Maker-in-Residencies for analysis and contribution to guidelines - Recommendation and guidelines for the implementation of creative practices - Evaluation of The Creative Museum project with interim reports throughout the project - The Creative Museum project will be disseminated through networks and specifically targeted events to showcase the methodologies and made available on a specific website The project sets out to achieve: - Development of basic and transversal skills (digital, innovative creativity, informal approaches to learning). - Development of new programmes for audiences based on concept of the project - Foster intercultural learning - Opportunities to develop new partnerships with local maker communities and entrepreneurs and the creative industry sector. - Creation of an open community of learners, shared costs, - Debates on efficient and sustainable investment in education and training at European and national level - Develop new opportunities for experimentation in museums within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme or other EU programmes. - Analysis, recommendations and guidelines for creative practices - A project-specific website - Targeted dissemination with EU agencies, museums, science, maker, creative industries, science and education sectors
The Creative Museum project was a three-year Strategic Partnership running from 2014 to 2017 and is funded via Erasmus+, Key Action 2 (Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices) - Vocational and Educational Training (VET). It gathered nine partner organisations: from museum associations to sciences centers through heritage, art museums and a maker space. The initial project proposal outlined the potential role of both digital engagement and the maker community in light of the European economic downturn. With reference to the Council of Europe 2014 report, the project sought to explore ‘new opportunities brought by globalisation, digitisation and new technologies which were changing the way cultural heritage is created, accessed and used’. The project addressed two main challenges for museums. Firstly, to become significant agents in the local economy as research centres, tourist destinations, places of employment and training. Secondly, to engage with more diverse audiences, emphasising their mission of serving the society with socio-cultural and educational purposes. As some older models of interaction no longer work, museum staff need to step outside their comfort zone and seek innovative ways to collaborate with their communities. The project was created in response to the need to provide training for museum professionals and their partners to accommodate a perceived shift in the dynamic of museum public programmes, where museums find themselves working collaboratively outside the sector, creating a new language of participation and engagement. As the Creative Museum project has developed and evolved we have seen digital technology as one of the tools that might be used as a means or method of interpreting collections, but the focus of the project has become to be as much about learning from and through the maker community about creative practices. Throughout the three years of The Creative Museum project, museum professionals have been encouraged to learn from each other through the partner meetings and the Museomix training sessions, to test new ways of interacting with audiences and create partnerships through the Maker-in-Residence training programme, to share practices and experiences, as well as disseminate the processes and outcomes via the website, social media and all conferences and workshops which have been organised by the project’s partners. The Creative Museum project had been designed as a space for prototyping, experimenting and documenting new ways of learning from organisations and individuals outside of the sector. Through training, discussion and experiementation it encouraged staff to take risks and to develop new ways of engaging with audiences; it was a dedicated space for projects where people had the right to make mistakes and to learn from the process. The Creative Museum project can be seen as a ‘laboratory for innovation’: it has encouraged discussion, reflection, brainstorming and experimentation amongst museum professionals, it has contributed to open up museums and transform them into more creative, participatory and lively environments.