Page 223 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015223possible by the integration of its network strategy, based on constant commitment to audiences, with worldwide initiatives such as #AskACurator, #MuseumLove and #MuseumMemories.Several noteworthy actions have been carried out over the past year.The Mauritshuis in The Hague has performed one of the most original and fun social net- working actions to promote its reopening. Two days before reopening its doors, through its Facebook profile it invited anyone interestedin doing to submit a photograph of a private, domestic setting where they had placed a replica of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. This imaginative action took advantage of the work’s worldwide fame in a creative way and succeeded in conveying the message that “The museum is open again and you can find this work here”.But the most interesting aspect, without a doubt, is the prize awarded to the winner. A reproduction of the domestic setting featured in the winning photograph was built in the muse- um itself, only this time the original Girl witha Pearl Earring hung on the wall. The winner could thus enjoy the original work in her own private space but inside the museum.17A European-wide initiative is #MuseumWeek. This project, which ran for a week from 24 to 30 March 2014, is intended to bring museums and their professionals closer to their community by making them open to real-time participation to answer the questions and enquiries of Internet users. Each of the days was devoted to a specific theme, such as #MuseumMemories or #Muse- umSelfies, and an emotional connection wasestablished with followers, who were invited to share photographs and other content.The precedent of this initiative is #AskACurator, which was also included as a theme for 28 March. Although it is an ambitious and structured action, it turned out to have certain shortfalls and areas where there was room for improvement. It was exhausting to devote a whole week to museums on Twitter – not only for the institutions but for the community, which found that its TL was being monopolised by these institutions. Evenso, this activity achieved significant participation among both users and institutions (more than 40,000 tweeters and some 600 institutions) and, for communication purposes, it would be worth revising it and correcting the flaws detected with a view to future editions.18Invasioni Digitali is an Italian initiative started up in 2013 with the aim of making museums’ wealth of heritage available to the whole com- munity through digital platforms and open data, and making it more social and participatory. It sets out to educate and raise the awareness of Italian institutions in the use of web technology and the social media in order to carry out inno- vative co-creation and cultural dissemination projects jointly.Its website features an interesting manifestothat expresses the need to share, digitise and build with everyone a new management and knowledge of art and heritage. Anyone can carry out an “invasion”: they need only propose a day, a time and an institution and launch it, making arrangements with the museum in question for it to provide the necessary support. Invasions can consist of guided tours and meetings with2. Web technology