‘Sicilian museums need connections and a strategy’

Over ten years ago, he published a study on the online visibility of Sicily’s cultural heritage, including an online guide to the island’s museums. What has changed and what has remained the same?

Compared to when I published my study *The Online Visibility of Sicilian Museums*, there has certainly been an increase in digital tools and an awareness of their potential. Even back then – in 2012 – I highlighted the shortcomings of a digital cultural offering that was, at the time, outdated, uncoordinated and decentralised. What does not seem to have changed is precisely the overall organisation of the cultural offering. Sicily continues to boast an extraordinarily rich heritage, but one that is fragmented across institutions, areas of responsibility and different owners, as well as websites and portals that are mere duplicates of one another, causing nothing but confusion amongst users. For example, Italian regions such as Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna have for a very long time been presenting their heritage in an integrated manner, ranging from a single portal to applications with increasingly rich content; other southern regions (Puglia, Campania and Sardinia) have long been investing in single portals for their cultural heritage. It seems that this has not been possible in Sicily. Admittedly, a significant step in this direction is represented by the Network of Municipal Museums of Sicily – at last a genuine example of museum cooperation, capable of linking institutions and local areas. This is a significant achievement, though it concerns municipal museums rather than the region’s entire heritage. The challenge is to develop this first concrete initiative into a truly integrated, recognisable and accessible Sicilian cultural system.

However, there are examples of digital innovation in Sicilian museums.

Among the initiatives I have studied, I would highlight the Salinas Museum in Palermo, for its ability to transform social media into tools for engaging with the public (since 2013), and the #iziTRAVELSicilia project, which I coordinated at a regional level, for experimenting with forms of participatory storytelling involving communities, schools and institutions. I have also personally collaborated on the creation of a series of multimedia projects, virtual tours, videos accessible in Italian Sign Language (LIS), and immersive experiences. These range from the multimedia content produced for the Syracuse Archaeological Park to the interactive virtual tours created using Google platforms – first as part of the 2015 pilot project at the ‘Paolo Orsi’ Regional Museum in Syracuse, then in 2018 at the Etna Park, and subsequently in 2022 at the Archaeological Park of Naxos and Taormina. Another significant project was the immersive film ‘Noto 1693 VR: The Day of Fear’, available at the Civic Museum of Noto. Among the many digital projects in recent years, the “Antonio Pasqualino” Puppet Museum in Palermo has played a leading role, as has the Civic Museum of Castelbuono, a true hub of innovation in this regard. This innovation is primarily organisational and cultural, even before it is technological.

With Changes, he edited a book on digital museums and Generation Z. What do young people expect from museums, and which approaches – such as gamification, social media and co-creation – actually work? How can we ensure that those affected by the digital divide are not left behind?

The research carried out as part of the Changes project has shown us just how necessary it is to rethink the relationship between museums and younger generations. Young people are not just looking for engaging digital content, but for experiences that are intuitive, immersive, personalised and, above all, authentic. Gamification, storytelling and co-creation work when they are not merely technological gimmicks, but tools to stimulate curiosity, learning and participation. At the same time, we must ensure that innovation does not lead to further exclusion. Digital technology must broaden opportunities; it must not become the sole prerequisite for accessing culture. A truly innovative museum is not one that speaks only to digital natives, but one that manages to engage with diverse audiences without leaving anyone behind.

Which regions, museum networks or European institutions could serve as the most useful models for an island region such as Sicily, which is fragmented and home to many small cultural sites?

I would look to European examples that have successfully built regional networks capable of sharing expertise, services and digital tools, such as those in Catalonia. Given its insular nature and the widespread presence of small cultural venues, Sicily would, above all, need a model of cooperative governance and to be more open to public-private partnership solutions.

If you could suggest three measures to the Regional Government to modernise its cultural venues, making them more user-friendly, accessible and attractive, what would they be?

The first step would be to build – drawing precisely on the experience of the Network of Municipal Museums – a single regional digital cultural system, open to all cultural venues regardless of their ownership, capable of integrating information, itineraries, services and access tools. The second would be to allocate stable resources to professional expertise and shared management, ensuring that technological investments do not come to an end when funding ceases, and investing in staff with the technological skills required to manage this intergenerational transition. The third would concern universal accessibility – physical, sensory, cognitive, linguistic, economic and digital – designed from the outset with the involvement of the people concerned.