Open call visitors programme museum professionals: Sharing Culture through Digital Means

In this age of the pandemic, museums all around the world are either still closed or can receive only up to 50% of their usual visitor capacity. That’s why digital means have become essential for museums to get in touch with their public. Within the field of digitisation, there are numerous possibilities, for example, an Instagram exhibition such as the online queer art project Through the Window. At DutchCulture, we think it is vital to enable museum professionals to exchange ideas and knowledge to optimize digital solutions.

To realise this, DutchCulture organises a public visitors programme on 17 and 18 June, inviting museum professionals from all over the world to connect through the theme of digitisation in their field. More specifically, the programme will revolve around one important question:  

How to create digital museum programmes that stand out, inspire and connect with the audience?  

In our two-day online visitors programme Sharing Culture through Digital Means, we will examine this question through lectures, knowledge exchange sessions and presentations of best practices in the Netherlands. The main goal is for our participants to learn from each other and share knowledge to connect to their visitors in a digital world.

What to expect 

• (Digital) encounters with colleagues from all over the world

• Exchange of ideas, experiences and best practices

• Potential new collaborations  

Programme  
We set up a two-day digital programme split between a conference and a knowledge exchange session:

17 June: Conference Day: presentations and lectures by museum professionals in the Netherlands.
For example, Van Gogh Museum will share their experience in setting up a virtual museum. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Groninger Museum, Textiel Museum and several other museums will also give presentations.  

This first day focuses on meeting sessions on different subjects in the virtual museum world. The day ends with a wrap-up in which we will discuss what we want to explore in detail on Day 2.  

18 June: Open dialogue and knowledge exchange with participants/attendees  
On the second day, participants will have chosen an organisation/institution in the Netherlands that matches their interest. This part of the programme will be a 1-to-1 matchmaking session upon the request of each visitor.  

For whom
Whether you are a museum conservator, curator or museum marketeer, this visitors programme is meant for museum professionals looking for innovative digital ways of sharing culture. Note that this programme is not only for professionals working in established museums. We also encourage independent curators and professionals working in smaller community museums to participate.

Participants must be:

• Working in the museum field

• Comfortable with understanding and speaking English

• Curious about innovative digital tools used in the museum sector and enthusiastic about sharing ideas within this theme

• Willing to write an evaluation about the visitors programme afterwards

Public visitors programme 
The public visitors programme is an annual series of gatherings organised by DutchCulture that focuses on knowledge exchange between professionals in the cultural sector. The aim is to bring about sustainable international cooperation and worldwide networks of cultural professionals.  

Watch the video below.