CreaTech Frontiers CDA: Further Details

Regional Museums and Creative Technologies: addressing barriers to digital equity.

About the Partner

Heritage & Culture Warwickshire, part of Warwickshire County Council, manages 5 professional areas of operation: Museums, Archives, Arts, Heritage Learning and Local Studies across 5 main sites of operation: Market Hall Museum, Warwickshire County Record Office, St Johns House Museum, Hawkes Point Collection Centre and Chesterton Windmill. The Services maintains and develops 3 county collections: Archives, Museum and Local Studies and provides public access to those collections, either in person or digitally, and ensures those collections are relevant to current and future generations. As the county museum and archive, the service is accredited by Arts Council England and The National Archives.

The service provides an annual learning and engagement programme, including curriculum-based schools programmes and community activity, with a focus on providing the broadest possible access to Warwickshire's heritage and culture. The service also has a strategic role in supporting the development of the heritage and culture infrastructure of the county.

The service has a track record of initiating and delivering research and development projects focusing on specific areas of heritage and cultural practice involving collaboration with external partners, including the University of Warwick. Current projects include ‘Unlocking Collections’, an exploration of Market Hall Museum’s founding collection alongside updated contemporary and community interpretation.

About the Project

Developed in dialogue with HCW and regional museum partners to address their needs, this research project investigates both visitor expectations and the ability of regional museums to meet them, systematically exploring the factors that affect this, such as resourcing, skills and capacity gaps, and modes of working within the sector. The project will generate evidence-based insights for regional museums, industry, sector professionals, and local and national policymakers with the aim of promoting efficient, effective, and impactful uses of creative technologies.

This research project is premised around three key questions: 

1. What are audience expectations of the contemporary museum experience in the context of emergent creative technologies?
2. What strategies can regional museums adopt for new ways of collaborative working – across the sector and with industry – to satisfy audience expectations?
3. How can creative technologies be implemented at regional museums in a sustainable way, which makes a positive environmental, economic and social impact?

 The research project will adopt a primarily qualitative approach including methods such as semi-structured interviews, visitor surveys, focus groups, participant observation, and self-reflexive ethnography. The research approach will include analysis of original source/archival material, grey literature and various policy documents. Fieldwork and data collection will be primarily focussed on museums located within the boundary of Warwickshire County Council. However, expert interviews/research visits may come from regional, national and international contexts.