Museums Connecting Cultures Connecting People

The CONNECT project enables museums of the cross-border area to network around a triangle of 3 museums (Alphabet museum of Bitola, Olympic Museum of Thessaloniki and Folklore museum of Stavros) in order to promote intercultural dialogue, knowledge transfer, access to culture using innovative ICT and to improve their services to public and society, while promoting flourishing tourism industry, visitors mobility and sustainable development. Thus, CONNECT project focuses on three key strategic areas: 1. Cross-border cultural networking of museums and communities. 2. Improved museum services and access to culture for citizens and society. 3. Sustainable economic development of the cultural tourism sector. The project through the use of active networking, green interventions and ICT applications in the three museums improves their services, creates state of the art touristic services and products such as on-line thematic museum roots and mobilizes tourist services providers towards sustainable cultural tourism. Through the project, the beneficiaries gain experience and know-how while benefiting from the implementation of activities for improved museums services and cultural accessibility. The target groups gain knowledge, skills and capacity to improve their services to public and society. The project/programme area benefits from cultural enhancement, increased mobility and strengthening of local touristic economy. Project actions are all implemented exclusively within the Programme while the outputs target the entire programme area and beyond since the project deliverables are transferable, replicable and web accessible. In WP3, the citizens’ needs and expectations will be assessed in Thessaloniki and Bitola. Mapping and evaluation of Museums interconnection in the cross-border area will refer to the entire eligible area. The feasibility study-operational plan of museums network and the thematic nets of cooperation will be developed in Thessaloniki with input from Bitola. The roadmap for building cultural and social cross-border links and the e-service point for the museums network will be developed in Thessaloniki in order to serve the networking needs of the CB area.In WP4, Guides and toolkits for connecting museums with local society and development of non-formal education activities will be developed to fit the needs of Olympic, Folklore, and Alphabet museums. Bioclimatic interventions will be made in Olympic Museum plus a digital exhibition, e-guide and mobile exhibition. Rehabilitation will take place in Alphabet Museum. On-line virtual tour-visitors help desk, e-guide and mobile exhibition will be developed for the Alphabet Museum. Creation of the folklore showroom and digital applications will take place in Stavros. Training staff activities will take place in Thessaloniki and Bitola. In WP5, e-maps will be developed in Thessaloniki for the cross border area, plus a guide for sustainable destination management. The network of touristic service providers and their capacity building will take place in Thessaloniki and Bitola. Mapping of visitors experience will take place in both museums and project evaluation will be made in Thessaloniki.