Introducing the new Migration in the Arts and Sciences Generic Services project

Earlier this week, we welcomed partners to The Hague for the first meeting of the new Migration in the Arts and Sciences Generic Services project. Awarded as a part of the 2016 Generic Services call, it aims to identify, select and digitise collections and make them available on Europeana through a thematic collection dedicated to the theme of migration to, from and within Europe.

Towards our next thematic collection

On 18 and 19 September, a first meeting gathered the six project partners: KU Leuven, National Archives of Hungary, National Film Archive - Audiovisual Institute Poland, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, National Library of Lithuania, National Library of Serbia.

During the session, we introduced them to Europeana’s thematic collections strategy, our publications strategy and editorial features such as exhibitions, galleries, and blogs. The project partners then presented their collections focused on migration, and particularly relating to artists and scientists. We were impressed by the variety of materials, ranging from historical maps showing the dwellings of migrant populations in Romania to the archive of Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski and videos witnessing major social movements of the 20th century. The diversity of content - from letters, posters, photographs to film and musical scores - promises to make a fascinating prospect for users to explore.

This thematic collection will source new content, via the project participants and their networks and new and existing Europeana data providers, of audiovisual material, archival content and textual collections, and will be the first time that these collections relating to migration will be gathered in one platform.

Europeana Foundation. CC BY-SA

What is next?

This meeting kickstarted our work with our Migration in the Arts and Sciences partners to unlock digital heritage. The launch of this new collection will be accompanied by a series of promotional and participatory activities throughout 2018, in which Europeana and our network will focus on the ways migration has helped to shape our shared European cultural heritage. More details will be announced in the coming weeks.

We are delighted to be collaborating with our six partners, and we are also interested in hearing from more cultural heritage institutions with digitized content relating to migration. If your collections are relevant to this theme, we could include them in the thematic collection. Get in touch with Adrian.Murphy@europeana.eu.