The action has set the general objective to provide small and medium-sized museums with a new generation of specialized EU professionals working in the CH sector, equipped with a recognised, cross-cutting and high-level digital skillset: the Digital Curator (DC). By working both at museums’ institutional levels and at target beneficiaries’ (professionals) level, the specific objectives of the project have been to: 1) encourage the digitisation of cultural heritage in the management of small and medium-sized museums; 2) improve the digital skills of museum professionals specifically related to cataloguing and resource management 3) improve the digital skills of museum professionals specifically related to heritage promotion, storytelling, and public accessibility 4) provide a model for museum organizations that want to approach digitalisation along two main paths: (a) instruments and resources for the digital training of museum operators; (b) Strategies for the exploitation of digital resources to broaden visitor experiences 5) encourage and test public involvement in digital initiatives undertaken by participating museums, all while assessing the theoretical skills of digital curators in the field.
NEXT-MUSEUM was conceived in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic as a response to overcome the difficulties encountered in the museum field. In particular, the proposal aimed to support small and medium-sized museums in their digital transition through the professional figure of the Digital Curator. The main addressed needs are summarised in: -Partner universities involved in supporting local cultural actors in cultural promotion initiatives were interested in working on the concrete application of digital tools to the cultural promotion sphere of small museums, and also to incorporate it in the expertise of their departments; -Partners with non-academic profile who directly manage exhibits and cultural initiatives in museums (FMC, NMZ and ALICANTE) were looking at elaborating and testing digitization strategies more oriented to the external promotion of the museum and in particular to audience involvement activities, expanding the direct competences of museums’ staff; -External museums and cultural professionals involved in the action needed to identify tailored strategies to exploit simple, user-oriented technologies and develop targeted competencies to identify, assess and respond to the developing challenges in the CCS.