10th November 2011

How to set up a Big Draw (Museu Picasso-style)

On Sunday 23 October we celebrated the second annual Big Draw Festival of Drawing, an initiative originally launched in London that explores drawing not only as a creative medium but also as a great form of communication, learning and recreation for people of all ages.

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25th October 2011

Big Draw. The Festival of Drawing in pictures!

Big Draw in Barcelona has been a great participatory event thanks to you all. See you next year!!!

Here you have a small selection of photos of the day! Read more »

26th September 2011

Digital challenges (for heritage, for the cultural sector)

Are we, the organisations, adapting ourselves well to the digital environment? Undoubtedly, a lot of progress has been made and there are successful initiatives and notable efforts have been made towards knowing how to live, or survive (?), in the new setting. But are we doing enough? And are we doing it well enough?

Digital users. New York. Photo: Conxa Rodà Read more »

12th July 2011

What is a Wikipedian-in-residence doing in the Museu Picasso?

From moving forward in parallel without ever meeting to working together: this is constructive change of attitude on the part of two worlds, that of Wikipedia and that of museums, that for some time now have been exploring very fruitful lines of cooperation.

Source: Albert Sierra

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5th April 2011

Art Museums and Social Networks Fill the MUSAC

The auditorium full, the adjacentbig-screen viewing room full as well, a total of 600 connections to the live streaming broadcast, and a really massive participation on Twitter demonstratedthe high level of interest in the topic and the willingness to learn and share among practising and trainee members ofthe museological professions.

The façade of the MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in León, which hosted the one-day Workshop on Social Networks and Contemporary Art Centres and Museums, 1 April 2011. Photo: Conxa Rodà

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1st December 2010

Museums face the challenge of the global audience

The conference Museums and the Web, which we have talked about on a number of occasions, is a privileged platform on which to discuss the use of the Internet and the new technologies in publicizing museums and their collections. The Museu Picasso took part in the conference for the first time in 2008, when we presented our new website, and since 2009 we have had a place on the International Program Committee. Thanks to this connection, we recently welcomed to the Museum two of the conference directors, David Bearman and Jennifer Trant, who came to give a talk on ‘Reaching a Global Audience. Engaging the Local Visitor’. This session, along with the talk and workshop given here by Nina Simon just a few days earlier, afforded museum professionals in Catalonia a wide-ranging first-hand vision of the most innovative developments worldwide in the field of participation and museums 2.0. Read more »

29th November 2010

A Fruitful Workshop with Nina Simon at the Museu Picasso

Coming up with formulas to encourage the active participation of the public is still a pending issue in many museums. For the staff of these institutions, the presence of Nina Simon in Barcelona provided an exceptional opportunity to discuss this challenge, learn about the participatory initiatives being implemented in other countries and share experiences.

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15th November 2010

e-interview with Nina Simon by Museu Picasso

I first met Nina in Indianapolis at the Museums and the Web 2009 Conference, but I had been reading her instructive and witty blog, MuseumTwo, for quite a long time then. Precisely for her blog she won an Award at the MW09 Best of the Web. As we have been disseminating, we are happy to welcome Nina at our museum, where she’ll give a talk on Wednesday 17th November 2010.

Nina just published her first book a few months ago, The Participatory Museum. You can read a review on a recent post we wrote. I had the opportunity to interview Nina as a prologue to her coming to Barcelona. Here you are: Read more »

15th November 2010

Cultural Diffusion, Participation and the New Technologies

In this last couple of weeks I have attended two very interesting seminars which drew attention to the need to rethink the methods of disseminating culture in today’s society. What is art? What is communication? How is culture disseminated? Where is the boundary and how is that information transmitted: these were the subjects reflected on at the 3rd Conference on Innovation and Cultural Dissemination at the CCCB and the Digital Discussion: Key Aspects for Successfully Innovating and Internationalizing the Audio-visual Sector at Barcelona Activa.

At the CCCB the focus of the talks, as Juan Insua made clear in his introduction, was on the paradigm of innovation in the field of culture: going beyond a static culture in art, this proposes a participatory approach in which the users interact with culture, making it more accessible and therefore closer to people’s interests and concerns. Emphasis was placed on the importance of cultural institutions embracing the role of mediator between culture and its users in order to democratize it and make it more social and in this way emulate existing cultural networks. Read more »

5th November 2010

How can we make museums more participatory? Nina Simon provides a lot of ideas in her book The Participatory Museum

To get us nicely warmed up before the lecture that Nina Simon will give at the Museu Picasso on Wednesday 17 November, we offer you a review of her widely acclaimed book.

The concept of public participation is associated above all these days with the track opened up by social media. And it’s true that the social networks provide endless options to share, comment, recommend, co-create and, in short, participate so easily and so immediately that we’re still getting used to. But the idea of participation goes far beyond the Web 2.0. The museum visitor, now accustomed to being an agent in the virtual environment must also be offered channels of expression and participation in the physical environment of the museum. Read more »