Explora18
Explora’s last 18 years: industrial heritage, craftsmanship and new technologies
INFORMATION
Project duration: June 2020 – June 2021
Contribution: €40,000.00
Description
Explora18: Explora’s first 18 years, between industrial heritage, craftsmanship and new technologies is a project created to celebrate the first 18 years of Explora, open to the public since 9 May 2001, promoting its space as one of the ‘places of culture’ for the entire region. Explora represents a space and heritage returned to the city: in 1998, the buildings constructed between 1870 and 1920 were in a state of complete abandonment and decay and were the subject of a restoration project. Find out more…
In its first 18 years, Explora has organised activities for children aged 0 to 12, mainly from Rome and other provinces of the Lazio region; for families visiting the museum, mainly from the region; for the general community that gravitates around the museum and benefits from the activities provided by the project, especially in the free outdoor area; for local, regional and national schools, which take advantage of new educational programmes developed through high-tech interventions, divided into age groups (0-3, 3-5, 6-7 and 8-11 years old); and other audiences, including former visitors and citizens reached directly and indirectly through communication campaigns.
Objectives
Specifically, the project aims to:
- to increase the museum’s visibility through dedicated technological supports to promote and improve the enjoyment of cultural heritage and services related to school and family tourism at Explora, thanks to structured communication campaigns;
- to improve, through the integrated use of new technologies, the enjoyment of sensory trails for children aged 3-5 years in the main exhibition hall;
- to add value to the visit inside the main exhibition hall through a new play trail with integrated use of technology for children aged 6-12, to digitally reconstruct elements of the museum and the city of Rome;
- to revisit the museum’s historical panels, from 1870 to the present day, through storytelling tools, audio guides and multilingual QR codes;
- bring families closer to the history and industrial heritage linked to Explora, the Borghetto Flaminio, with the participation of the team of architects who worked on the opening of the museum and the museum’s founders, in collaboration with experts in industrial archaeology, members of the regional museum network and regional artists;
- to make new generations aware of regional craftsmanship through practical and hands-on workshops, in collaboration with architects and archaeologists from the regional community.
Explora18 plans to launch a high-value digital communication campaign called #Explora18, with solutions that actively engage the public through a contest to collect photos for each year of the museum’s history from 2001 to 2019 and a project to collect historical photos from 1870 to the museum’s opening, as a testament to its legacy and historical heritage.
Explora’s activities
Three high-tech installations in the exhibition hall and outdoor area of the museum:
- EXPLORE THE LIGHT between lights and colours: a new interactive play trail for young children (0-5 years), families and schools (nurseries and kindergartens), which revamps the current ‘Tactile Trail’ and the ‘Me and Colour’ school trail, with the creation of four new themed areas dedicated to colour theory, which is essential for relating to the world around us. The new sensory trail integrates interactive technological systems to help visitors understand the behaviour of light and colour through an intuitive sensory experience with five installations: three technical-informative installations – LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, REFRACTION OF LIGHT, COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS – and two playful-experiential installations – SOUND AND COLOUR and COLOUR AND SOUND.
- BUILD YOUR OWN MUSEUM: a digital and interactive game for children aged 6 to 12, allowing them to digitally reconstruct elements of the museum and the city of Rome through storytelling with two fixed stop-motion stations, a filming and animation technique that allows children to build their own museum and city, playing with architectural elements and historical information with the help of educators and experts in the field.
- EXPLORE HISTORY: a digital reinterpretation of the historical panels currently on display in the entrance hall and outdoor area, and a new exhibition layout in the exhibition hall, reconstructing the stages that led to the redevelopment and growth of the museum, actively involving the public through QR code technology.
Five final events dedicated to schools and families:
- Four days of free admission for schools dedicated to celebrating the museum and craftsmanship, with workshops conducted in collaboration with artisans, artists, and specialists who are leaders in their fields in the region.
- One free day for families dedicated to the history of the museum, with the team of architects who worked on the opening in 1998, in collaboration with experts in industrial archaeology and workshops in the outdoor area and inside the exhibition hall, where the new, redesigned itineraries will be officially inaugurated for families: EXPLORE LIGHT through lights and colours, BUILD YOUR OWN MUSEUM, EXPLORE HISTORY.
