Summary

Museums across Australia and the world have responded to the COVID-19 crisis with new strategies of digital engagement. With physical venues have closed, many institutions have found ways to create, curate and translate modes of engagement for digital contexts. No longer a mere platform for institutional marketing and promotion, social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok and YouTube have all become sites for creative intervention.1 For many, it has been a time of quick digital literacy acquisition and recalibration of curatorial and public engagement methods.

This pandemic has unveiled huge questions about equality, access, how we socialise with each other, and who and what we value and, for our purposes here, and what role of the museum can play as we move forward. Technological solutions in the form of digital engagement have helped combat the epidemic and give us access to arts and culture. According to a recent Patternmakers’ Audience Snapshot Report – COVID-19 Audience Outlook Monitor (AS), 75% of respondents have participated in online arts and culture activities, like watching arts video content (52%), watching live-streamed events (42%), or doing online classes or tutorials (36%) (AS 11).2 In other words, the cultural sector digital engagement has helped communities cope with the quarantine and physical distancing offering alternative way to connect to each other and what we love.

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