Michael Culture Association is not-for-profit organisation, founded in July 2007. The association is established under Belgian law (AISBL - Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif). It was created following the Michael and Michael Plus European projects, which permitted to create the Michael European Portal, the Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe. Its purpose was to continue the work on the portal beyond the period of the EU funding and to make the network of Michael partners sustainable.

Michael Culture Association has become a key actor in the promotion and valorisation of the digital cultural content, and gathers a strong network of more than 100 institutions all over Europe. Cooperation of professionals from cultural sector and artists is at the core of Michael Culture Association activities. The association favours meetings and trans-sectorial exchanges between professionals from all cultural fields – cultural heritage, contemporary creation, architecture – and from related sectors like education, tourism, societal innovation, NTIC, and contributes to peer-learning and professionalization.

Michael Culture Association favours transnational circulation of cultural works and technological development. It enables reuse and personal reappropriation of cultural content by the end users, promoting innovative digital cultural uses. Digital access is a complement, and even more an inventive to the live experience: national borders are removed. The association favours the knowledge of the richness of European heritage for general public.This stimulates intercultural dialogue between citizens and contributes to the rising of a European citizenship.

Member of the Executive Board of Europeana, the Multilingual online collection of millions of digitized items from European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections, Michael Culture Association contributes to the reflection on the challenges stemmed by the digital shift in line with EU 2020 strategy. Opened to all cultural fields, Michael Culture Association is interconnected with other networks in cultural heritage, artistic creation, innovation and cultural policies , favoring open dialogue and impacts beyond its own network, multiplier effects and transnational projects development.
Michael Culture Association promotes cultural diversity in line with the UNESCO convention and the reduction of the fragmentation.

Michael Culture association is planned around animating a platform of reflection, debate and knowledge exchanges to promote national and European policies and activities on Digital Culture Heritage. It induces an enriched intercultural dialogue between professionals from all over Europe, contributing to structure and nurture the debate on the creation of a common cultural European space.

 

Michael Culture leads the following actions:

• Animation of the network of exchange and cooperation: management of the network, development of new projects, creation of synergies with other networks

• A think-tank for digital cultural heritage field: strategic watch and prospective, organisation of workshops and working groups meetings

• Capitalisation and dissemination of the European projects of the Minerva network: resource centre, promotion of best practices, communication, publications, guidelines…

• A services platform: innovative services for the general public, new services for the research 

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Contact person: Corinne Szteinsznaider

Email: contact@michael-culture.eu

Website: www.michael-culture.eu