Kicking off a summer of Europeana Sport
2020 was supposed to bring a summer of sport - the Tokyo Olympics, European football championships in cities across Europe, Wimbledon - but all of that is now on hold. But people’s passion for sport remains. And that’s why we bring you Europeana Sport - sharing the story of Europe through our sporting heritage in the past and the present.
Europeana Sport explores how sport shapes our sense of self and our sense of Europe, through a variety of remarkable cultural heritage objects that showcase the geographic and cultural diversity of Europe. All of human emotion is exhibited in sport - pride, elation, despair, frustration. It is never ‘just a game’.
UPDATE 26 MAY 2020: The Europeana Sports season which had been due to start over the summer will now begin a little later this year. And for good reason - a Europeana Generic Service project will be funded from September onwards, giving us more scope, resource and time, extending what was a summer season to an 18-month project. The new timeframe also means we can align more with sports events that will take place next year. Some of the planned activities will still go ahead this summer and there will be more to follow - keep up-to-date by following our Europeana Pro page and #EuropeanaSport hashtag.
What to expect
In the same way that Europeana 1914-1918, Europeana Migration and Europe at Work gathered personal stories from the public, Europeana Sport will gather stories of our personal sporting activities and achievements and bring it together with archive material from museums, galleries, libraries and archives across Europe.
While it is not possible to run our physical collection day events this year, Europeana Sport’s online participation and interactive activities will encourage people to share their stories, memories and ideas about their individual and our collective sporting heritage in exciting ways. Look out for more details at a later date.
Europeana Sport editorials (blogs, galleries, exhibitions) will illustrate the story of our sporting heritage through a variety of remarkable cultural heritage objects that showcase the geographic and cultural diversity of Europe.
‘Ireland, Ireland, together standing tall’
Europeana's national aggregator for Ireland, The Digital Repository of Ireland, and five partners - EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, European Expo2020, Hunt Museum and University of Limerick Sport - will run an online campaign inviting people across Ireland and beyond to share their sporting memories.
Be part of our Europeana Sport team
The season presents a wonderful opportunity for you to engage with and expand your audience by getting involved.
Europeana Sport’s collaborative approach helps you to engage with existing and new audiences, highlighting the impact of sport and sporting heritage on the communities, societies and people of Europe. By getting involved, you can empower the digital transformation of your institution.
We invite Europeana’s network of cultural heritage partners to be part of our season and help bring our shared story to life. There are a number of ways to take part:
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Help us identify content on Europeana or provide new content to Europeana that demonstrates our sporting heritage
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Share sport heritage stories by writing a blog for the Europeana website
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Encourage your audiences to share their stories of sporting heritage through online campaigns
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Pioneer new ways to engage audiences digitally - we’d love to hear your ideas
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Spread the word about this season to your networks and audiences
Please contact [email protected] and / or [email protected] if you are interested or would like to know more about Europeana Sport, or go to our dedicated Europeana Sport page on Pro.