Citizen Science & Cultural Heritage

Private photo collections prove to be a horn of plenty when it comes to discovering the many facets of history. Adding these collections to publicly accessible digital databases will help complete the complex perspectives on historical developments. Citizens are eager to make their stories heard and our partner the PHOTOCONSORTIUM as an accredited aggregator for Europeana supports their wish to participate in inspiriting cultural heritage.

Our partner the PHOTOCONSORTIUM – International Consortium for Photographic Heritage organized a multiplier event in cooperation with the Museo della Grafica di Pisa and the University of Pisa within the project Citizen Heritage on 28 June at the Palazzo Lanfranchito in Pisa to enable local communities in participating in cultural heritage, more specifically photographic heritage.

This one-day conference united leading speakers from the Citizen Heritage consortium partners as well as further experts from the digital cultural heritage sector, Social Sciences and Humanities Research area and experts in the use of participatory approaches in a cultural and/or educational context.

The event offered insights into success stories of citizen participation in Cultural Heritage and Higher Education institutions. A panel discussion complemented the conference programme.

Special offer: Share private photo collections with Europeana

The programme also included a digitisation desk inviting participants to bring along heritage photos from their private collections. This offer was welcomed eagerly by the participants. A professional photographer assisted in digitising the private collection material on the spot. By offering these private collections to Europeana for publication, Citizen Scientists help make the many facets of history visible. Finally, an exclusive preview visit to the exhibition about golf in the Museo della Grafica happily concluded the day.

All presentations, the programme as well as images from the event can be found on the event website.