Join us in supporting VanGoYourself and Europeana Beacon
We often think of cultural heritage as paintings hung on a museum wall, or an impressive building in a foreign city. But nowadays, in this digital age with initiatives like VanGoYourself and Europeana Beacon, it takes lots of exciting new forms. Both projects use digital heritage material in surprising ways and at Europeana, we are proud to back them. Now, you can show your support too!
VanGoYourself
Tired of just looking at paintings? How about recreating one with your friends and sharing the result with the rest of the world? That is what VanGoYourself is all about. The website launched one year ago and since then has been getting people from all over the world to interact with their cultural heritage. VanGoYourself was even featured in BBC’s Breakfast TV – even the presenters took part!
In order to take the next step, the team behind VanGoYourself wants to get 100 more paintings onto the site from across Europe, and get more people VanGoing themselves so that the project becomes synonymous with having fun with art. Eventually they want to see museums all over the world holding their own VanGoYourself events and inviting the public to recreate their art in any way they want to.
In order to make this possible, VanGoYourself is asking the public to get more artworks online by launching a crowdfunding campaign to help free up more of the world’s greatest paintings so people can recreate them. We hope you’ll join us in supporting the campaign. VanGoForIt!
Europeana Beacon
Europeana Beacon is an exciting new project that is now seeking crowdfunding to help deliver a local discovery app across Europe. At the heart of Europeana Beacon is a mobile app that uses iBeacon technology to let users to discover local culture in new and immersive ways, and gives local landmarks the chance to speak for themselves!
Pictures, videos or historical facts from Europeana are supplemented by local providers like tourism offices, and they can also build fun, interactive experiences, including treasure hunts and quizzes.
The Europeana Beacon project started at Hack4Pisa in October 2014, created by a team from the local software company Oimmei. After winning the competition and impressing the judges, not just with their innovative idea but with their strong team too, they went on to be finalists at the second Apps4Europe international business lounge at the Future Everything festival in Manchester in February 2015.
The challenge the team now faces is to find the support and funding from local providers and fellow developers that will allow them to launch this as a platform that remains free to the public. Do you like the idea behind Europeana Beacons? Support the team and get great rewards too!
