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ReInHerit Webinar - Co-creation and prototyping in museums: Concepts and practical examples

Author(s)
ReInHerit Project

Publication date
April 19, 2023

Terms of reuse
MIT - CC BY 4.0

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Co-creation and prototyping in museums: Concepts and practical examples

ReinHerit Webinars are aimed at cultural heritage professionals. They will consist of a how to guide for small and medium-sized museum and cultural heritage organizations that documents processes, provides instruction, technical requirements and best practices for co-creation and collaboration between museums and cultural heritage institutions.

The Webinars are organised in the context of the  Horizon2020 ReInHerit project, that aspires to disrupt the current status quo of communication, collaboration and innovation exchange between museums and cultural heritage sites, in a sense that it will connect cultural heritage collections and sites, and present Europe’s tangible and intangible heritage to citizens and tourists in their wider historical and geographical contexts. The ReInHerit project is proposing an innovative model of sustainable heritage management, through which a dynamic network will be born; this network comprises cultural heritage professionals, innovation and cultural heritage solution tech experts, researchers, national museums, regional and local museums, and representative managers of Heritage Label sites. 

About this webinar:

Ever wondered what co-creation actually means and how it can be applied in a museum context? Have you heard of prototyping in museums?

Nowadays museums are increasingly seen as places of experience and dialogue. They are multi-voiced, story-oriented, open for provocation and reflection. To stay relevant and engaging museums need to innovate and have a visitor-centred approach. Developing new services and products that appeal to your visitors is vital to retain and increase visitor volumes, whilst enabling a meaningful experience. Oftentimes, though, a lack of resources is a hindrance. Development work is regarded as expensive but, is it really? This is where co-creation comes into the picture. In an environment of change and reflection co-creation is an apt, and surprisingly affordable tool to use when developing new museum products and services. 

The aim of this webinar is to delve into how co-creation can be used in developing permanent and temporary exhibitions. A particular focus will be on the usefulness of prototyping as a vital part of the co-creation process. Why is it useful to prototype? What do museums gain from engaging in prototyping? What do you need to start prototyping?

Concept and Experience Designer Ines Montalvao will provide answers to these questions and tell us stories about co-creation processes she has been working on in museums around the world. Webinar co-facilitator Susanne Ådahl, Researcher in the ReInHerit project based at Arcada University of Applied Sciences will engage in a dialogue with Ines to deepen these important questions of museum development work.

Speakers:

Susanne Ådahl has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Helsinki and has studied Service Design at the University of Lapland. She works as a researcher and lecturer in Cultural Heritage issues and Service Design at Arcada University of Applied Sciences, which is one of the partners of the ReInHerit project. In the ReInHerit project she has been responsible for conducting primary research on the needs of museum professionals and the cultural heritage sector. She has previously worked as a researcher at the Helinä Rautavaara Ethnographic Museum in Espoo, Finland. Her research interest include gift theory, performance theory, science and technology studies, future heritage and human-robot interaction in museums. 

Ines Montalvao (PT) has demonstrated experience working in museums and science centres as an exhibition designer. She is based in Helsinki since 2017, where she has worked with concept & experience design in Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre, as a freelancer in international projects with museum exhibitions, and currently as the experience designer responsible for content co-creation in a citizen science and art project at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. With a degree in Biology and a passion for Art, she combines both, exploring cross-disciplinary approaches, storytelling, illustration and innovative ways to create meaningful experiences.  instagram: @i.montalvao

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101004545.

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