A three-year data-sharing collaboration between the Culture24 arts website and the BBC is set to boost the online profile of museums nationwide.
Culture24 will supply information on activities at museums, galleries and heritage sites for the BBC’s Things to Do website. The project was set to launch as Museums Journal went to press.
Anra Kennedy, Culture24’s head of programmes, said the new partnership would give “museums direct access to a mass audience. This will give groundbreaking exposure to cultural venues and the huge range of activities they offer.”
A Culture24 spokesman said: “There will be no extra work for venues. Once registered on Culture24’s direct data-entry database, their data will flow seamlessly to the BBC.”
Registration is free but before data can be fed to the BBC, eligible organisations need to be approved as BBC “partners”. Participants must be publicly funded or non-profit with activities fitting in “with the BBC’s project themes”.
History-based activities form the initial focus of the scheme. Culture24 will provide data for the BBC’s Hands on History campaign, a project which “aims to get thousands of families actively engaged with history” through forthcoming series such as The High Street on BBC1.