This year, the program of the annual forum brought together a panel discussion “Digital Environment in the Museum: Borders and Horizons”, an expert discussion on the results of a study on the possibilities of museum education, a presentation of a study on social projects, as well as three regional routes involving the Foundation’s grantees. The online broadcast of the “Museum Guide-2023” took place on June 21 on the official website of the forum (in Russian).
Oksana Oracheva, General Director of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation: “We have been holding the “Museum Guide” for over 10 years, offering participants different formats of interaction. Last year the forum was held completely online, but we all still appreciate a living contact, so this year we arranged a real expedition. The forum took place in a hybrid format - we organized regional events in Yekaterinburg, Samara and Yaroslavl, where our grantees were invited, and also broadcast expert discussions on the Internet. The focus of this year is on practical orientation. Based on the interests of our participants, we discussed various tools that museums can use in practice, talked about the digital environment, the possibilities of specialized education and the specifics of museum projects development.”
The discussion “Digital Environment in the Museum: Borders and Horizons” was attended by museum sector experts who spoke about the creation of unique digital projects and shared effective tools for working with the audience in social networks. The discussion was moderated by Ilya Tambovtsev, Chairman of the Council for Museum Digital Development at ICOM Russia.
Maria Khartanovich, Head of the Digital Projects Department of the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg, spoke about the process of creating ethnographic collections from the historical point of view and about the modern non-verbal code of communication with the audience. The digital transformation of the collections provides access to them for an unlimited range of users: at the moment, 45,000 items are exhibited on the museum's website. This suggests new opportunities of studying history for both the scientific community and the general public.
Anna Titovets, Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Moscow Museum of Cryptography, demonstrated the reverse transition – “from online to offline”. The museum took visitors on a journey through cryptography, immersing them in a digital environment within a physical space through interactive installations and simulated interactions with blockchain technology. Thus, the museum simplified the perception of information about such a complex science as cryptography.
Yulia Malinina, Deputy Director for Development of the Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House, spoke about new technological projects implemented by the classical memorial museum. These are the interactive exhibition-quest "Gumilyov/Galaxy", where visitors interact with the exposition using electronic tablets, the experimental Internet project "Radio Fountain House", the portal about the literary life of St. Petersburg "I was here.rf", as well as the augmented reality project "Akhmatova digital”, which connects the memorial space with virtual reality.
Leading PR specialist of the State Historical Museum Anna Filatova shared the museum's tools for working with social networks. In particular, Anna described the features of an online museum shop, spoke about the specifics of creating visual content and shared the technologies that allow to produce it in accordance with the State Historical Museum corporate style.
Project manager for the Culture division of VKontakte Alena Trushkovskaya described ways to promote digital projects in the field of culture at VKontakte. In addition to the basic content management principles, Alena noted the importance of experiments with content formats in order to find the best possible dialogue with the audience in social networks. She also spoke about the features of using such platform tools as clips, messengers and broadcasts.
Ekaterina Sharova, Head of the “Hermitage-Media” Department of the State Hermitage Museum, shared the ways in which the museum interacts with audiences at various social networks, maintains a balance between the traditional museum and the modern approach to content creation, spoke about the Hermitage’s most popular online projects, such as online tours and video interviews with visitors.
In the format of an expert conversation, Natalya Sergievskaya, General Director of the “Future Time” Foundation, and Irina Arzhanova, Executive Director of the NFPK, discussed the prospects and challenges of educational programs for museum employees. As part of a study initiated by the Vladimir Potanin Foundation, experts from the “Future Time” Foundation analyzed more than 30 regional educational programs and interviewed various museum employees to understand how much the demand for museum education matches the offer of educational institutions.
The issue of professional development is of high demand among specialists in the museum sector. They want to master not only basic competencies, but also develop digital knowledge, management skills, marketing and communications. Most of the respondents are interested in the topics of attracting financial resources, management, and development strategy. The results of the study suggest that museums should pay special attention to mentoring support within teams, partnership projects with the educational sector, and providing infrastructure for new challenges. More information about the research can be found on the forum website (in Russian).
Another study initiated by the Foundation is "Museum project - is there a life after it?". As part of the presentation of the results of the study, Inna Prilezhaeva, Executive Director of the Association of Cultural Managers, spoke about the factors that make museum projects sustainable and the obstacles to their development.
The objects of the study were the projects that the Vladimir Potanin Foundation supported within the "Changing Museum in a Changing World" and "Museum Guide" grant competitions. 41% of the competition winners took part in online questionnaires, polls and interviews. One of the most important effects of the competitions was the community of project designers, and half of the socio-cultural projects continue to develop successfully over the years. The results of successful post-project development include the formation of strategy, the emergence of new areas of activity, going beyond the boundaries of the museum, the possibility of influencing social processes and audience development. Detailed information on the research is available on the website (in Russian).
You can watch expert presentations, study research results, use materials and get acquainted with the projects that received grants from the Vladimir Potanin Foundation on the official website of the “Museum Guide-2023” forum.
The general media partner of the forum – VKontakte social network.
Media partners: “Kultura” radio station, “ArtMoskovia”, “Tochka ART” and “Mir Muzeya” (“Museum world”) media.
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