// responding to covid-19

What’s next…?

• transforming the cultural sector

• mattering to your local communities

• developing new skills, partnerships and strategies

• reaching out with new stories into new spaces and connecting with new audiences

As thinking and cultures shift around work and health, identity, civic duty, civil rights, national histories and the future, it’s never been more important to be aware of the stories we’re telling and the impact they might have - stories of where we come from, who we are and what we value, as well as the futures we imagine building.

In times of crisis people look into the past - the cultural models that connect us - to help make sense of the present and plot different pathways into the future.

Cultural organisations and archives, in collaboration with storymakers and tellers, have an important role to play here as custodians and interpreters of ‘the real stuff’ of history. At This Great Adventure, we believe that museums and their collections can help us to tell the world’s most important stories.

Digital thinking enables museums and cultural organisations to use their assets in new ways - exploring new narratives, forms and formats - supporting open, informed and generative debates in the public realm. Augmented and digital visitor experiences are inspiring new generations audiences. We have a unique opportunity to reimagine how and where we share and encounter cultural storymaking, to make the next generation of experiences genuinely meaningful as well as memorable.

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Digital thinking and storymaking are powerful ways to rebuild, reshape and respond to COVID-19.

We’re seeing this at Filton, where Aerospace Bristol are using this opportunity to build new audiences. By reimagining how they use their archive, we’re helping the museum to create an evolving digital collage of aviation heritage, local stories and oral history - mapped onto the streets where they happened, as well as through the exhibition spaces. This new platform is supporting existing fundraising campaigns and extends into a new online gallery and storefront to explore opportunities for generating additional revenue. As part of this project, we will also be experimenting with original Augmented reality and gamification opportunities.

with Staunton Country Park, responding to lockdown by using digital strategy to start different conversations with their visitors - we’re integrating new voices and perspectives from inside the park and local community alongside heritage stories, health and wellbeing support, education and community building action.

with the office of public works at Dublin castle, we’re developing a new augmented reality visitor offer and innovation business plan, including immersive and interactive storytelling experiences and an augmented relaity game for iOS and Android devices. this is being developed alongside and innovation business plan to transform how OPW can engage with millions of people who now may or may not visit their 130+ sites across Ireland.