The months of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown how important online cultural resources are in today's world. The Internet and digital technologies have enabled us to function both professionally and privately. Thanks to them, learning and cultural activities were possible. Contact with digital art was important not only for educational purposes. It was also used for relaxation and virtual travels, stimulated imagination and creativity. Museums have played an important role here, and tried to be as accessible online as possible. Among them, there are five museums involved in the "www.muzeach" project.
Cultural resources in a digital version
One of the forms of making culture available online, and not only during a pandemic, is the digitisation of museum collections. And this is where the "www.muzeach" project comes in, the main goal of which is to increase access to cultural resources in digital form. The leader is the Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów, and the partners are the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the National Museum in Lublin (formerly: Lublin Museum in Lublin), the National Museum in Szczecin and the Castle Museum in Łańcut. These institutions want to improve access to their cultural resources and make them available in one common place, in digital form. The project was created not only for people who are professionally related to art and history, such as scientists, museologists and teachers. Everyone will benefit from its effects – including pupils and students, whole families, enthusiasts and tourists interested in Polish culture (also from abroad). Almost 2,000 objects have been digitised since the beginning of the project in 2019. The development of the website presenting the resources of the project partners will follow soon.
One click – five museums
The main assumption of the project is to create a common website: inmuseums.pl, where you will be able to search for objects from various institutions. For what purpose? So that the digital collections of the five museums can be explored in one place without having to navigate to other platforms. The website will also allow you to integrate access to resources digitised with various advanced techniques.
One of them is gigapixel documentation, most often used with images, allowing you to view them at very high magnification and see details missed during ordinary viewing. On the other hand, the RTI enables the simulation of viewing a given object with a change in lighting – it is especially attractive for flat objects with varied textures, because it reveals convexities in the surface of the work of art. Another advanced documentation technique is the Geographical Information System (GIS) that allows for assigning, for example, photos of objects and information about them to specific points on the map, as well as archival data or technical documentation.
Most importantly, users of the common website will be able to easily obtain information in Polish and English, download files and further process them for their own purposes, e.g. educational or artistic. In this way, museums from Warsaw, Lublin, Łańcut and Szczecin want their visitors to form patterns and habits of using the resources of Polish cultural institutions, using the latest technologies and digitisation trends.
One goal, many activities
Although the aim of the project can be summarised as making available digital resources of various kinds from many museums in one place in a simple way and for free, its achievement is not possible without the involvement of many people of various specialisations: art historians and restorers, photographers, specialists in digitisation and the Geographical Information System, educators, programmers, editors, translators etc.
Project co-financed from European Funds and by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The project is implemented under the Operational Program Digital Poland for the years 2014-2020, Priority Axis 2 “E-government and open government,” Action 2.3 “Digital availability and usefulness of public sector information,” Sub-action 2.3.2 “Digital availability of culture resources.”
Beneficiary: Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Partners: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, National Museum in Lublin (formerly the Lublin Museum in Lublin), National Museum in Szczecin, Castle Museum in Łańcut
Total cost of the project: 12,172,215.58 PLN
Amount of the co-financing: 9,247,929.94 PLN
