Creative educational opportunities for and with digital cultural heritage
Since some years, the cultural and creative industries are widely understood as an important key point of support for inclusive and sustainable economic growth and employment in the European Union (European Commission 2012).
The European Commission within the framework of its Europe 2020 strategy started in 2012 with new policies as programmes and initiatives to promote creativity and innovation as the only way to face the new challenges and deal with social needs. The cultural and creative industries including the ones related to the cultural heritage sector have become core elements of this strategy for improving the workforces and economy for the whole of Europe (OMC-European Commission 2018).
Some of the programmes and initiatives that belong to this strategy are Creative Europe, Horizon 2020, Erasmus +, Erasmus + for young entrepreneurs, and the European Structural and Investment Funds.
As a result of the efficient development of these programmes in the cultural sector, according to EUROSTAT (2019), the number of cultural enterprises in the EU-27 were more than 1 million, represented by an average of 5,1 percent of the total number of enterprises in the non-financial business economy of the EU-27.
Also, according to EUROSTAT (2019), their contribution to the non-financial business economy’s value-added was by an average of 2.3 percent and the turnover was 1.5 percent of the total turnover generated within the EU-27’s non-financial business economy in 2017.
In the case of cultural heritage, along with the programmes and initiatives launched by the European Union, the European framework for action on cultural heritage was established in 2018 (European Commission, 2018).
Apart from the growth in the number of cultural enterprises related to the cultural heritage sector with high added value and turnover, some projects from the Creative Europe programme were highlighted for improving the management and safeguarding of cultural heritage in European cities (Eurocities 2020).
Educational Projects and initiatives with digital cultural heritage
In the educational sector, some projects with national and regional support must be also named due to their advances and innovation in digital cultural heritage.
- MIMOMOFARO is a Portuguese project created by a consortium of public institutions, professional networks, and secondary education institutions for promoting the values of cultural heritage according to the UNESCO Convention of Faro from 2015 through Minecraft and other digital applications.
- CiTiEs (Ciudades: Tiempo + Espacio) is a Spanish project in the high-education innovation framework launched by the Complutense University of Madrid for developing heritage education tools with ICT. In the 2019–2020 academic year, educational tours around Madrid were developed and now, in the 2020–2021 academic year, they are developing new digital heritage educational materials for distance learning in the flipped classroom modality.
- Heritage Jam is a contest and innovation hub for digital cultural heritage professionals and scholars launched in 2014 from the University of York and the University of Carleton (Ottawa, Canada).
- Corte y sitios reales: espacios de poder, representación y producción (siglos XVII-XVIII) is a Spanish project in the high-education innovation framework launched by the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid for developing heritage education mateirals with ICT around the Sitios Reales. They have created a MOOC and some educational resources as interactive maps or animation videos.
Another project already finished is the Europeana Spaces launched between 2015 and 2016 where some hackathons for digital cultural heritage and museums were developed. They published a booklet titled Hacking Culture A how to guide for hackathons in the cultural sector in 2017.
Bibliography
- Eurocities (2020): Cultural Heritage in action. A catalogue of good practices. Available on “http://members.eurocities.eu/pdfs/Cultural_Heritage_in_Action_catalogue_of_good_practices.pdf” [Viewed: 13 March 2021].
- European Commission (2012): Communication Promoting cultural and creative sectors for growth and jobs in the EU — COM(2012)537. Available on “https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/opinions-information-reports/opinions/communication-promoting-cultural-and-creative-sectors-growth-and-jobs-eu-com2012537” [Viewed: 13 March 2021].
- Open Method of Coordination (OMC) — European Commission (2018): The role of public policies in developing entrepreneurial and innovation potential of the cultural and creative sectors. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union. Available on “https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5d33c8a7-2e56-11e8-b5fe-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-68820857 ” [Viewed: 13 March 2021].
- European Commission (2018): European framework for action on cultural heritage. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union. Available on “https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5a9c3144-80f1-11e9-9f05-01aa75ed71a1 ” [Viewed: 13 March 2021].
- EUROSTAT (2019): Cultural Statistics. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. Available on “https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/10177894/KS-01-19-712-EN-N.pdf/915f828b-daae-1cca-ba54-a87e90d6b68b ” [Viewed: 13 March 2021].
