Ghent's collection showcases living heritage

April 4, 2023

min read

The “Ghent Citizen Collection” is an innovation project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, designed to enable citizens to experience heritage in a more participatory way and allow them to contribute to living heritage.

The collection brings together the heritage of five major museums in Ghent: the Design Museum Ghent, STAM Ghent, the Ghent Industrial Museum, Huis van Alijn, and the Ghent Archives. Through this project, the museums explored their collections and digitized as many as 100,000 heritage objects, which are now available to the public on an online platform.

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The collection not only remained a digital project, but also transformed the museums into a high-tech experiential space: the CoGent box, which was installed throughout three neighborhoods in Ghent. In this participatory neighborhood initiative, residents and passersby from Wondelgem, Watersportbaan-Ekkergem, and Sluizeken-Tolhuis-Ham were able to visit and discover how objects, documents, and stories came to life.

Chase, along with the museums and many other partners such as the City of Ghent, District 09, Ghent University, Fisheye... is participating in this project to enhance Ghent’s collection and has enthusiastically embraced online storytelling.

Challenge

Think about how we can bring heritage stories to life and share them with the public.
Developing a design that was suitable for all residents of Ghent and extended beyond the museums.
Fostering collaboration between heritage sites, museums, Ghent residents, and creative and high-tech exhibitors, in an accessible way.
Build a community of Ghent residents on Instagram and Facebook that brings together the stories behind Ghent’s objects and people and their rich history.
Organize all stories, objects, activities, events, partners, and puzzle pieces into a single online story.

Outcome

We brought together all the different elements—from visitors and cultural heritage to activities and events—and seamlessly integrated them into an online and offline platform. Each month, we gathered input from a wide range of stakeholders (cultural heritage professionals, local residents, policymakers, and others) and developed an action plan to engage our followers in the right narrative.

This is how certain moments linger:

bringing together the residents of the mobile home community in Wondelgem who saw their history brought to life in the story *Wondelgem Op Wielen*.
1-2-3 Piano, which has always brought us music, fun, and a sense of community throughout the neighborhoods of Ghent.
Eric, the watchmaker from Ekkergem, shows just how many hidden gems you can find behind the facades.
The history of the circus that came to life with Straffe Touren.

Want to check out our social media profiles? You can find The Ghentaar's collection here on Facebook and Instagram.

Credits

Social Media Manager: Jasmin Mazarine De Waele

Videographer: Loic Meulenberg

Team Lead: Annelies Droesbeke

Project funded by the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative

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