Museum As a Space for Healing? Towards Reparative Discomfort
I am very pleased to host this article by Kwame Boafo, who recently joined our Europeana Communicators Community webinar, Decolonising Museum Practices: Collections, Interpretation, and the Invisible – A Conversation on the Mechanics of Memory. The webinar invited us to reflect on how museums shape collective memory: through the objects they preserve and display, but also through the stories they choose to tell, and those
Why We Need Public AI and What Cultural Heritage Can Do
For those who are not familiar with it, Europeana is a European initiative working to make digital cultural heritage more accessible, usable and open to everyone. Through Europeana, millions of artworks, images, books, documents, recordings and digitised objects from museums, libraries, archives and cultural institutions across Europe can be discovered and reused. But Europeana is not just an online platform. It is also a community
Rolling into the meeting: using Europeana Story Dice as a Team-building icebreaker
Meetings often begin with agendas, updates and practical information. But sometimes, before people can work well together, they need a moment to loosen up, listen to each other and enter the room not only as professionals, but as people. That is where storytelling dice can help. What are Europeana Story Dice? Europeana Story Dice are a simple, creative tool that uses images from cultural heritage
Beyond the Algorithm: My Vision for Storytelling and Trust at Raisina Dialogue 2026
In the crowded corridors of the Raisina Dialogue, amidst the grand strategy and global power plays, I found myself looking past the screens. I was there for the whispers in the hallways, the shared human realization that while our tech is accelerating, our need for genuine connection has never been more urgent. Hosted by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the Ministry of External Affairs,
Archaeology of the Future: When a Plastic Bottle Becomes Cultural Heritage
The idea for this post was born within the walls of the University of Bari, during a course on Europeana that I had the pleasure of teaching. It was specifically the dialogue with the ideas of Nicola Barbuti that triggered a reflection in me: what truly defines an “artifact” today? We are used to thinking of marble statues or Roman amphorae, but the reality surrounding
Europeana 2021 – How to make people feel heard and welcomed
What is inclusive language and why is it important in our communications? This session, organised by the Europeana Network Association Communicators Community and led by me and Alice Orrù, aimed to support diversity and inclusion in our sector by offering an exploration of inclusive language and highlighting initiatives to be of inspiration for others. This talk has explored what ‘Inclusive Language’ is, questioning the term