museum4punkt0 – Digital Strategies for the Museum of the Future - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The museum4punkt0 cooperative project brings together cultural institutions of all sizes from a variety of fields. The project partners are developing digital content for new ways of learning, experiencing and participating in museums. The project work is intended to help museums throughout Germany develop suitable digitalization strategies and expand their digital outreach.

The museum4punkt0 project, which is overseen by the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), has been developing, testing and evaluating digital content for museum outreach since 2017. Across Germany, interdisciplinary teams drawn from the partner institutions are turning their attention to visitors in order to find new, digital ways of approaching cultural heritage and to facilitate participation. One objective of museum4punkt0 is to share the participants’ accumulated knowledge and to support institutions – especially the smaller ones – in their efforts to make greater use of digital technologies.

The Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz is directing and administering the project. In addition to organizing and administering the project, the central project management team has the following responsibilities:

• Coordination of knowledge transfer among the project partners, to the SPK and to the German cultural community
• Communication of concepts, work status, experiences and results of the museum4punkt0 projects, likewise of the latest ideas and viewpoints concerning digital cultural outreach and developments having to do with digitalization
• Conception and organization of public and internal project events on the topic of digital outreach in cultural institutions and change management processes
• Advising cultural institutions that are partners in the project as well as those outside it
• Release of project results in the form of publications and documented code
• Presentation of the project at professional gatherings and conferences
• Development of prototype applications based on objects held by the SPK and other project partners

The project was initially scheduled to run for three years and has been extended to the end of 2022. The German Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media is funding museum4punkt0 in accordance with a resolution of the Bundestag.

The institutions involved in museum4punkt0 reflect the broad spectrum of museums in Germany. Taking part in the project under the leadership of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz are: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Institut für Museumsforschung SMB, Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss, Deutsches Auswandererhaus Bremerhaven, Deutsches Museum, Museen der Schwäbisch-alemannischen Fastnacht (Fastnachtsmuseen Schloss Langenstein und Bad Dürrheim), Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen Schloss Gottorf, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land Museum und Park Kalkriese, Historisches Museum Saar, Stiftung Deutsches Meeresmuseum, Badisches Landesmuseum, Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek.

The partners' subprojects are designed to be relevant to everyday practice. Digital prototypes are developed through case studies and tested in the respective museums. The requirements, means of implementation, and standards are laid down in close consultation at the conceptual stage.

The knowledge acquired in the course of the project work is collated and then shared with other cultural institutions. The project's results are made available at intervals on the joint museum4punkt0 platform. They range from reusable and customizable applications and source code to insights into user behavior as well as operating concepts and progress reports. A key part of the project is the active give and take among the participants in the interest of exploiting synergies in the use of digital technologies for outreach at cultural institutions.

museum4punkt0 accumulates expert knowledge and experience to support as many institutions as possible in the development and implementation of suitable digital strategies. Outreach concepts that accommodate both digital and analog media have a knock-on impact on institutional structures. Digital technology is seen as representing an opportunity to allow visitors and users to participate in cultural heritage across a range of fields.

Based on a resolution of the Bundestag funded by: