The Virtual Arts Club

About the practice

A series of various online events on digital arts and book readings, to foster the engagement of people with the museum.

Story behind

As people were locked in their houses during the pandemic, the employees of the museum felt the need to keep the engagement of people with the museum. In that context, they created a series of different online events. Those were: Photo contests, online creation of calligraphs, and online book presentations and readings.

About the institution

The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki is a museum in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. It holds and interprets artifacts from the Prehistoric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods, mostly from the city of Thessaloniki but also from the region of Macedonia in general.

Context

When the pandemic started, there was a request to all public services, especially cultural institutions, to create some digital actions in order to keep in touch with the public.  Each employee could take the initiative and undertake their own project.

Location

Nationawide

Success factors

The main objective was to keep adults and children creatively engaged in the midst of a pandemic, as well as to maintain the museum's contact with its audience.

This was a great opportunity for the museum to increase its online influence and such events will continue after the pandemic.

Target audience

This practice is aimed at existing friends of the museum, but also at new people. The events are for adults and children. There has been a high level of school participation and this is because parents and teachers wanted to creatively engage their children in the midst of a pandemic.

Sustainability

This practice is sustainable as it concerns activities that are only done online. It has no financial cost, except for the man-hours of the employees, and can easily be done by other museums.

Digital tools

Basic tools such as email, PowerPoint, and some open-source video and image editing tools were used. The museum employees taught themselves how to use them while creating the activities.

Funding

The project did not have any additional output beyond the man-hours.

Organization/ Institution
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki
Good practice link
https://www.amth.gr/en/news?field_news_category_tid=30
Address
Manoli Andronikou 6, Thessaloniki, Greece
Contact person on good practice
Angeliki Moneda
amth@culture.gr