"As we continue to do our part to combat the spread of COVID-19, we think we all need a moment of levity and joy—art can bring that. ArtLens AI is the latest in a suite of digital tool sets created by the museum during the pandemic that consider what people need, as we continue to work from home and progress through a new school year. Going beyond traditional museum resources, ArtLens AI: Share Your View is a fun way to bring art into your daily life and an easy way to deep dive into the museum’s collection resources. ArtLens AI follows in the footsteps of the museum’s previous digital endeavors, including the CMA’s Open Access Initiative and the ARTLENS Gallery, and continues the museum’s history of collaboration with creative partners."

— Excerpted from https://www.clevelandart.org/artlens-ai

"The aim of this document is to guide the digitisation of collections cared for by regional museums, galleries, cultural centres and keeping places – together referred to as cultural organisations. It has a regional focus given the particular digitisation scenarios and challenges known to the regional context. Not least are the physical environments of small and adapted spaces, or the open shelters, in which many cultural organisations (especially the volunteer-run) are located, or that house a wide-variety of collections. In turn, these collection spaces present digitisation challenges, given the diverse environments in which digital images will be made. Undertaking digitisation is time consuming and resource intensive, but it is also hugely rewarding. Digital images of objects have multiple applications from cataloguing collections to user-end purposes, such as profiling objects or whole collections on a website. Digitisation can improve not only public access to collections, but also the preservation of objects, as access to a digitised image reduces the need to handle items repeatedly. Due to the effort it takes, in the museum and gallery sector the agreed best approach to digitisation is ‘do it once, do it well.'"

The GIFT Box is a result of the GIFT project – a research project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme. The project brings together internationally renowned artists, designers, museum professionals and researchers to help museums create hybrid experiences: Experiences that combine the physical and digital to create personal encounters with cultural heritage.

EXAMPLE PROJECT

Gift

By Blast Theory
an artist group creating new forms of performance and interactive art, based in Brighton, UK

"With Gift, you use your smartphone or tablet to create a digital gift. It’s like a playlist or a mixtape, except with objects from a museum. Some people create playful treasure hunts with a game-like mission to find the objects, while others spend a great deal of time and care choosing a single object."

Link to info sheet

See video below:

"When implemented thoughtfully, digital solutions can facilitate and even amplify opportunities for mission-centric engagement for a wide range for audiences. As sites of cultural knowledge and learning, museums must grapple with the challenge of creating meaning and maintaining relevance in an age of unprecedented access to information and social connection."

"However, given the high cost of investment and infrastructural change that is typically required for successful digital engagement tools, museum staff must first ask themselves why their institution should consider investing in emerging technologies and what they hope to achieve from such an investment. With a focus on audience engagement goals, this report outlines some of the common factors driving museums to integrate technology with the visitor experience."

1. Engage diverse, tech-savvy audiences

2. Increase accessibility and inclusion for the larger population

3. Facilitate personalized access to the collection across different platforms

4. Extend length and depth of engagement

5. Measure and quantify visitor engagement

— Excerpted from https://amt-lab.org/blog/2019/4/digital-engagement-strategies-for-the-21st-century-museum

"The study aims to shed light on how arts and culture organizations can address the hopes, fears, and needs of Americans during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. This report offers early findings from the first wave of this national survey, fielded from April 29 to May 19, 2020, which became one of the largest arts and culture studies ever undertaken in the U.S."

"Beginning in Fiscal Year 2021 and spanning the coming five years, the National Archives aims to expand digital storytelling and make the agency's records increasingly available and relevant with online audiences. The shift to working, studying, and experiencing culture almost exclusively online for much of the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the timeliness and significance of the new strategy, noted staff who worked on its development.

'With so many cultural institutions closed due to the pandemic, including the National Archives Building, the only point of entry is online. The signpost to that is through social media,' said social media team member Hilary Parkinson.

Starting in March, the National Archives joined other research facilities and museums in shutting its doors to on-site visitors in an attempt to curb public exposure to COVID-19.

'We have a robust presence already, and we had a lot in place that helped ease the transitions required in 2020,' said social media team member Kristen Albrittain. 'The last six months highlighted and emphasized the importance of what we were already trying to do.”'

The social media team interacts with the public daily through several platforms, ensuring that the diverse audiences for the National Archives resources are able to connect with what the agency can provide. Online platforms also link agency staff, like archivists and researchers, to the public."

— Excerpted from https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/social-media-strategy-2020

The main objectives of this document are to provide budget-friendly guidelines:

• To provide the basic tools to create effective social media campaigns;

• To help you create and use compelling content;

• To share tips on how to monitor platforms in the most time-efficient ways;

• To provide a common framework for the use of social media for all ICOM Committees;

"The Digital Culture Compass is an online toolkit to support arts, culture and heritage organisations to integrate digital technology into their work. It has two elements: a Charter that outlines digital best practices and a Tracker that allows organisations to assess their approach to digital technology and develop plans for future work.

The Compass has been developed following research and a consultation process that included workshops in all four UK nations, attended by people from more than 80 different arts, cultural and heritage organisations with various levels of digital confidence, expertise and experience."

— https://digitalculturecompass.org.uk/