Every year, the Europeana Initiative runs the Digital Storytelling Festival. The international event encourages cultural heritage professionals, educators, creatives, and students from Europe and beyond to boost their storytelling skills and tell stories exploring culture. We hope to inspire participants to create connections between art, culture and history and the contemporary world.
Join the Digital Storytelling Festival - organised by the Europeana Initiative - to boost your storytelling skill and tell stories about culture!
Since 2023, a key part of the Digital Storytelling Festival has been our Online Creative Residency, which brings students and new professionals who want to gain storytelling skills in a professional setting together with experts. Working with these experts, residency participants develop stories with cultural heritage in different digital formats.
The theme for 2024 is ‘journey’ and, to add to writing, social media and animation, we’ve introduced two new formats - collage art and storytelling with 3D. 3D is also in focus as we are also encouraging participants to use a new set of 3D items from the Twin it! campaign in their stories.
Applications for the residency are now closed, but you can find out more about the mentors who work with participants below. We will also add the results of the residency programme on the page when they are available!
German Digital Library
Advisor for Project Management, Tools and Workflows
I have been working at the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek for over 7 years where i was responsible for the data deliveries to Europeana, and in the last two years I coordinated the Europeana Common Culture project on behalf of the DDB. Now i am in charge of the DDB Project "Increasing Metadata Qualit…Cosmina says, ‘I am thrilled about the opportunity to take part in the upcoming residency and mentor the collage art group! Collaborating with the participants and guiding them through workshops is a chance to share my passion for collage art using Europeana material and hopefully inspire their creative journeys. Our time together is an exciting prospect that resonates with my dedication for creative discovery and self-expression.’
Europeana Foundation
Editorial Adviser
Audience Engagement
Beth is a cultural and creative writer and Europeana's Editorial Adviser. She works on helping engage a broad range of audiences in Europeana’s work and content. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, runs workshops and has published a novel called ‘Blood and Water'.Beth says: ‘I love words and I love how stories create connections between people and the world around us. I’m looking forward to working with participants, helping them find their own voice and develop their storytelling skills. Above all, I want our writers to take us on a journey with them. ’
Marianna says: ‘I'm passionate about finding innovative ways to bring cultural experiences to life, and I believe that social media and storytelling are powerful tools for doing so.’
Carola says: 'I firmly believe that storytelling is the way through which we give life and voice to objects by showing ourselves to others. I look forward to meeting the participants and creating emotional and significant stories with them.'
Nick says: ‘I love how you can bring ideas alive and tell short stories using a mix of simple animation techniques, colour and engaging content. I’m looking forward to working with participants to impart some of the knowledge I’ve learnt when experimenting with a range of animation techniques. I’m hoping to introduce them to new animation software and apps which will help their workflow and ideas come to fruition and want them to feel like their creations are just the beginning of their animated journeys!‘
Matevž says: 'I enjoy discovering the stories of hidden gems, unknown facts and secrets of cultural heritage. Beyond written and visual stories, 3D offers the opportunities to narrate stories both in audio and visually - in three-dimensional, immersive space. I am looking forward exploring what an enthusiastic group of storytellers can do in relatively short time.'
With our Digital Storytelling Festival taking place in May, we ask the mentors of its Online Creative Residency to finish the sentence: ‘Digital storytelling is…’ Discover their insights!
This year’s Digital Storytelling Festival takes place from 21 - 22 May and we can’t wait to see you there! Whether you’re an educator, creative, cultural heritage professional or student, here are five reasons that you should attend.
