Throughout October, GIF-makers, history nuts, culture enthusiasts, and Internet fans are invited to take part in GIF IT UP 2020, the latest edition of the annual contest hosted by Europeana that challenges people to create animated cultural heritage images and share them online. GIF IT UP is a great and fun way to demonstrate how digital tools can foster culture and creativity. This year, it’s more relevant than ever as we all spend so much more of our lives online. The internet is where we now work, play and interact with others and the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged many cultural institutions and people to ‘go digital’ and to engage with cultural heritage – often for the first time.
This year’s contest is going even more global in its offer of inspiring and diverse content to reuse and remix and get creative with. Along with Europeana’s regular partners, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), New Zealand’s Digital NZ and National Library of Australia’s Trove, two new content partners have joined the fun – Japan Search, which gives access to digitised cultural heritage from Japan, and DAG Museums in Kolkata, India.
Website: https://gifitup.net/
HOW TO PARTICIPATE? The competition is open to people of all ages, professionals and amateurs alike. Choose among the millions of public domain works from the content partners, create your GIF, and submit your entry!
Rules: https://gifitup.net/rules/
WHAT ARE THE PRIZES? Prizes will be online art history courses from DailyArt magazine and Red Bubble gift cards. There will be a special category for the best GIF & runnersup, 1st time GIF-makers, children & teens (below 18) and a bonus category for GIPHY backdrops. Moreover, GIF IT UP has its own GIPHY Channel that exposes the participants’ creations to millions.
About Europeana
Europeana is Europe’s platform for digital cultural heritage, empowering cultural heritage institutions to share their collections with the world. Through Europeana’s collections website millions of cultural heritage items from around 4,000 institutions across Europe are available online. The Europeana Foundation is the organisation tasked by the European Commission with developing a digital cultural heritage platform for Europe. Europeana DSI is cofinanced by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility.
More Info on https://www.europeana.eu/en
It is designed to unite all those interested in the role of arts, culture and heritage in tackling the climate emergency and aims to enhance the capacity of these sectors to help build a climate-neutral and resilient world in the time of COVID-19. It promotes new partnerships between cultural actors and stakeholders across sectors and encourages the culture sector to play its part in driving greater ambition at UN Climate Summit (COP26).
SoPHIA is a two years project started on January 2020 which aims at proposing a holistic impact assessment model for historical, environmental and cultural heritage in Europe. With the term holistic it understands that the economic, social, environmental and cultural dimensions necessary to any intervention on heritage must be addressed comprehensively. The Platform will identify the most important challenges and opportunities linked to cultural heritage interventions in Europe. It will explore the general topic and the current situation as regards policies, assessment and quality of interventions, including best practices, and the creation of a draft holistic impact assessment model. It will also analyse specific case studies, focusing on people, domains and time. To achieve its goals, the project will bring together stakeholders from different fields who will define guidelines for future policies. UNCHARTED and the SoPHIA Platform has recently started a cooperation that will be increased by future common initiatives and mutual support. Surfing the waves of the pandemic, SoPHIA – Social Platform for Holistic Heritage Impact Assessment – held a first workshop online last June 25 and July 2 with its newly formed community of practice. The aim was to present the initial findings of the project, assess and exchange knowledges and practices, and spur the debate.
SoPHIA is currently bridging its first theoretical phase, during which it has collected and analyzed the literature and policies related to heritage impact assessment models and methods, with its second practical phase that foresees the design of an impact assessment model to be tested in selected cultural heritage sites, practices and events. The first phase has highlighted, among other things, the lack of models that duly address the four dimensions considered as fundamental when dealing with heritage interventions, namely the social, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions; the priority given to the economic dimension at the expense of other fundamental dimensions; the lack of consultative and participatory processes that provide for a sense of ownership by the communities; as well as the need for assessment models that take into account the long term impact of interventions, especially after so-called big events.
SOPHIA is a two years project started on January 2020 which aims at proposing a holistic impact assessment model for historical, environmental and cultural heritage in Europe. With the term holistic it understands that the economic, social, environmental and cultural dimensions necessary to any intervention on heritage must be addressed comprehensively. The Platform will identify the most important challenges and opportunities linked to cultural heritage interventions in Europe. It will explore the general topic and the current situation as regards policies, assessment and quality of interventions, including best practices, and the creation of a draft holistic impact assessment model. It will also analyse specific case studies, focusing on people, domains and time. To achieve its goals, the project will bring together stakeholders from different fields who will define guidelines for future policies.
In the first place, the context of the SoPHIA project was presented. This was followed by a series of keynote speeches that set the framework for the issue at hand: Annalisa Cicerchia, Roma Tre University, presented “Impact Assessment Methods” and Beatriz García, Institute of Cultural Capital, University of Liverpool, shared her views on “Why do present Impact Assessment Models prove inadequate”. The gaps and opportunities identified regarding heritage impact assessment models were also presented with a summary of guidelines and programmes from the EU and other world regions. Participants debated in small groups and, based on their experiences, contributed different perspectives that will be taken into account in the drafting of the SoPHIA impact assessment model. All the material of the Athens Virtual Workshop will be shortly made available for download from the SoPHIA website.
