Ready to reach out: Join OCW's conference on digitizing cultural heritage

On 29 - 30 June 2016, the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) will organize a conference during the Netherlands’ Presidency of the EU. The conference is titled: ‘READY TO REACH OUT: Connecting Cultural Heritage Collections and Serving Wider Audiences’. Europeana Network Association members are invited to attend and can register online until 1 May.

Detail from Kapitel VI. Michelangelos Verhältnis zu Dante, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Universitätsbibliothek, public domain.

Last November, the Dutch Ministry of Culture asked the Europeana Members Council to support the event, and advise on potential speakers and themes. It was a great chance for the Members Council to act on behalf of the Europeana Network Association, and demonstrate the pertinence of our members and their expertise to the wider European cultural landscape.

Here, Tjeerd de Boer, ‎Senior Advisor at the Ministry, highlights the main aims of the conference, the must-see speakers and the people expected to take part.

The conference has three main themes:

Engaging Audiences: Taking Visibility and Re-Use as the Starting Point
Digesting Cultural Impact: How Digitization is Changing our Institutions
The Network Approach: Reinforcement of the Digital Heritage Infrastructure

We expect to host Ministries of culture from across Europe, EU and European Commission representatives, policymakers and key players from the cultural heritage sector, Europeana Network Association members included.

Speakers announced so far include Jet Bussemaker, Dutch minister for Education, Culture and Science, Martine Reicherts and Marjan Hammersma - DG Media and Culture - from the European Commission, Georgia Abeltino from the Google Cultural Institute, Alexy Karenowska from the Institute for Digital Archaeology and Maarten Pronk from Rijksmuseum.

The Europeana 280 campaign (which launches in full with a #BigArtRide event in Brussels on 21 April) will also be presented.

This focus - particularly on re-use and the strengths of networks in the heritage sector - is obviously of great relevance to Europeana’s broad community of cultural heritage, technology and creative professionals. We hope members of the Europeana Network Association will join us there! Register your interest before 1 May.