Digital meets Culture

October 22, Brussels

On October 22nd (9am-2pm)in Brussels, MetaHeritage will host its final event

Under the title “Heritage Innovation for Europe’s Regions: Digital Technologies, New Business Models and Sustainable Tourism”, the event will bring together stakeholders from cultural heritage, digital innovation, tourism and regional development to discuss how heritage can become a driver of innovation, competitiveness and sustainable growth.

The programme will feature a mix of keynote presentations, expert roundtables and innovation pitches, including:

The role of digital heritage in regional innovation
XR, the metaverse and immersive technologies for heritage and tourism
New business models and making heritage initiatives investment-ready
Presentations of four MetaHeritage business cases
Real-world digital heritage solutions and opportunities for interregional collaboration
A networking lunch offering opportunities to connect with European policymakers, regions, heritage and tourism organisations, SMEs and technology providers.

View the full agenda:
MetaHeritage Final Event – Agenda & Programme

November 2-5, 2026 (online)

EuroMed 2026 – 20th Anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Digital Cultural Heritage

For two decades, EuroMed has provided an international forum where researchers, cultural heritage professionals, museums and memory institutions, technology experts, industry, educators and policymakers come together to exchange knowledge and shape the future of Digital Cultural Heritage.

EuroMed2026 continues the momentum of the highly successful Digital Heritage Summit, organised in Cyprus during the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union: the Summit brought together the international community to address digital transformation, AI, 3D and immersive technologies, Europeana, the European Cultural Heritage Data Space, Digital Twins and the future of Cultural Heritage in Europe.

EuroMed2026, taking place 100% online on November 2-5, now extends this dialogue across geographical and disciplinary boundaries.

Abstracts for papers can be submitted online until 23 October: https://euromed2026.eu/important-dates

Registration is required, you can apply at this link<<<<

October 27, online

JOIN TOPFOTO: World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2026

To mark the 2026 World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, prestigious British Archive TopFoto has organised an online event, “Topfoto: Past, Present and Future of Press Photography” online on Octber 27th.

The event will explore how press photographs move from newsroom to archive, and how archives help researchers uncover the people, events and stories behind the image.

The event includes a behind-the-scenes virtual tour of the Topfoto archive, exploring how historic press photographs are preserved, researched and brought back into use, followed by a screening of the acclaimed documentary The Moment of Truth and a live Q&A with Topfoto owner Flora Smith and filmmaker David Baksh.

Both sessions will examine the enduring importance of photographic archives for broadcasting, research, publishing and historical understanding.

The event is open to anyone interested in photographic history, but might be of special interest for people working in publishing, broadcasting, documentary production, picture research sectors.

View the full programme and register at this link<<<<

September 30, 2026, in Aarhus (DK)

Time Machine Connect 2026

Time Machine Connect 2026 (September 30, Aarhus) brings together the Time Machine Organisation (TMO) and EIT Culture & Creativity communities in Aarhus to explore how cultural heritage data, digital technologies and creative expertise can come together to create new opportunities for innovation and collaboration.

From heritage data, 3D models and digital infrastructures to creative businesses, new technologies and innovative applications, the event will showcase what both ecosystems have to offer. And, more importantly, what they can build together.

The programme of the event is already available, and can be consulted here<<<<

Through matchmaking, lightning talks, European project showcases and a hands-on Time Atlas workshop, participants will discover potential partners, explore available resources and identify opportunities for joint projects, pilots and future funding.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required and will be open until September 22. Register at this link<<<<

Developed by partner Bibracte for teachers

Two new Open Educational Resources available in the context of EUreka3D-XR project

Developed by project partner Bibracte in the context of EUreka3D-XR, two Open Educational Resources (OER) on XR technologies and cultural heritage:

“On the Shoulders of the Celts – How yesterday’s inventions have made today’s digital world possible“, a step-by-step guidance to produce a construction game with cubes, addressing children of age 11+
https://eureka3d.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/On-the-shoulders-of-the-Celts.pdf
“Exploring Heritage in New Ways – How to Use 3D and Extended Reality with Young Audiences”
https://eureka3d.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Exploring-Cultural-Heritage-in-a-New-Way.pdf

The two OERs offer children and young teenagers engaging ways to explore history, cultural heritage and digital technologies – while allowing teachers and educators to freely use, reuse, adapt or enhance the materials provided.

EUreka3D-XR project is co-financed by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union.

Voices from image sector – CHERISH Community Survey

img. courtesy: TopFoto Archives

As cultural heritage increasingly moves into digital environments, professionals and organisations working with images and photographic collections face a range of challenges — from digitisation and data management to interoperability, access, reuse and the adoption of new technologies. In the context of small support project CHERISH, Photoconsortium along with CEPIC, developed their first online community survey to collect a wide feedback on existing digital challenges in EU for the image community.

The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete, and will later be complemented with one-to-one interviews with key stakeholders operating in the sector. The results of the survey and interviews will be complemented with an impact assessement action taking place during all CHERISH action.

You can access the survey here >>>

The information collected with the survey will be managed as aggregated data, with non-disclosure of personal details nor transfer to third parties.

The survey is particularly relevant for image professionals, picture agencies, photo archives, cultural heritage institutions, researchers and other experts working with cultural heritage imagery and digital collections.

The CHERISH team is also encouraging relevant networks and communities to share the survey and help ensure that a broad range of voices from across Europe is represented.

This project has received support through a cascading grant from ECHOES, which is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101157364, with the support of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK Government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee No. 10110142 and No. 10110466. Views and opinions expressed herein are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

September 29, 2026 (online)

‘INNOVATE. PROTECT. EMPOWER. How cultural heritage can make Public AI a reality’ – European Heritage Hub’s Policy Talk

Join the European Heritage Hub to its upcoming Policy Talk, ‘INNOVATE. PROTECT. EMPOWER. How cultural heritage can make Public AI a reality’, taking place online on 29 September, from 16:00 to 18:00 CET.

The Policy Talk will explore the vision of a distinctly European approach to AI – Public AI – and the role that the cultural heritage sector can play in shaping it. It will build on the recent paper ‘Making Public AI reality: How cultural heritage can lead the way’ developed by the community of the common European data space for cultural heritage, and on an upcoming European Heritage Hub’s Policy paper providing concrete policy recommendations.

This high-level event is organised by Europeana, the deployer of the common European data space for cultural heritage, within the framework and support of the European Heritage Hub EU-funded Preparatory Action. It will bring together European and international policymakers, innovators and leaders from across the cultural heritage and AI communities, aiming to catalyse a coordinated advocacy movement around shared policy priorities and a common vision for Public AI.

The talk will address some pressing questions:

What role should the cultural heritage sector play in the development and deployment of AI? How can it contribute to a more diverse, fair and sustainable AI ecosystem in Europe?
Is there an alternative vision for AI – one grounded in the public interest? Can Europe champion such an approach, and how can the cultural heritage sector help enable it?
What cross-sectoral partnerships are needed for our sector to advance a Public AI agenda?
What policy changes and investments are needed to make this vision a reality?

Please find the draft programme here<<<<.
You can register at this link<<<<.

We need your voice!

As the European Commission develops its AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors, we want to help shape this important conversation through our upcoming Policy Talk and related Policy Paper. In addition, the Commission is currently seeking input from professionals, organisations and citizens through a Call for Evidence, with a deadline of 11 September 2026. The Europeana Initiative – also in its role as Hub partner – has already submitted its response, calling for a clear vision for Public AI. We need your voice too. We invite you to respond to the Call for Evidence, using, adapting, translating or drawing inspiration from our statement. Read more about how to contribute here.

OpenVGal’s open-source engine builds the room. You keep the files.

Create your own virtual art exibition with OpenVGal

OpenVGal is an open-source 3D virtual gallery for people and institutions that already have digitized photographs or artwork images. It lets them show the work in a walkable room instead of a page of thumbnails. The exhibition is a folder of files you can take away and put on your own server. It does not have to stay on a commercial platform.

Archives, museums, teachers and artists can build the rooms in the browser from their own images. There is nothing to install, and no account is needed to try it. When the exhibition is ready, it downloads as a ZIP that can sit on the institution’s own website. Anyone who does not want to run a server can instead publish to a permanent URL hosted by OpenVGal as a paid service.

Version 4 adds a browser-based builder, new gallery spaces and lighting that still runs on ordinary hardware, automatic placement of the works, and real-world sizes for prints and plates. The engine is MIT-licensed and published at github.com/lbartworks/openvgal.

Learn more about OpenVGal and start creating at OpenVGal.com/

1-2 August 2026, France

EUreka3D-XR at the Roman Days in Autun

EUreka3D-XR was back in Burgundy for the Roman Days in Autun, where the construction game once again attracted several hundred visitors to the Bibracte stand.

This time, there was no demonstration of the application, differently from the event in Arverniales: an AR Tour Builder training workshop is planned for this autumn with the municipal archaeology service, to support the team in designing its own tour showcasing its many 3D models of archaeological remains and reconstructions of lost Roman buildings.

This event, however, along with the one in Arverniales, helped introduce EUreka3D-XR to both a wide audience and heritage professionals. Feedback from using the construction game also contributed to the development of a tutorial enabling any European heritage institution or school to make, adapt and run the game with different audiences. It will soon be published on Europeana as an Open Educational Resource.

EUreka3D-XR project is co-financed by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union.

Voices from image sector – Community Survey

CHERISH Survey

In the context of small support project CHERISH, Photoconsortium along with CEPIC, developed their first online survey to collect a wide feedback on existing digital challenges in EU for the image professionals.

The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete, and will later be complemented with one-to-one interviews with key stakeholders operating in the sector. The results of the survey and interviews are complemented with an impact assessement action taking place during all CHERISH action.

You can access the survey here >>>

The information collected with the survey will be managed as aggregated data, with non-disclosure of personal details nor transfer to third parties.