Textile Culture Net: support for digital strategy and digital engagement

Textile Culture Net is an international network of four cultural organisations: CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) based in Hong Kong, Central Museum of Textiles based in Łódź, Poland, TextielMuseum based in Tilburg, in the Netherlands, and Lottozero, centro per l’arte, il design e la cultura tessile based in Prato, Italy.

Starting in spring 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the network showcased textile art and design from around the world online and helped to highlight the work of international curators.

The Textile Culture Net organisations started this journey by using Instagram as a platform for experimenting with new curatorial approaches and ways of presenting and enjoying textile art and design.

While, on the one hand, Textile Culture Net aims to build a curatorial network to open a new chapter in curating textile culture from transcultural and interdisciplinary angles, on the other hand, the institutions involved are strongly oriented towards reaching new audiences and engaging their target communities more.

European funding made it possible for the organisations in the network to undertake audience development and digital engagement training to help them achieve these goals, starting with context and audience analysis, which are fundamental tools for developing a more audience-oriented online exhibition format and a new system for publicising it.

BAM! and Meeting Pro were tasked with a consultancy and planning process aimed at achieving these goals.

Following an analysis phase and a meeting on audience development and digital engagement co-organised with Melting Pro to align the network on principles, approaches and methods for engaging online audiences, BAM! conducted an online workshop with all the project partners based on the Digital Engagement Framework.

Subsequently, BAM! was responsible for developing a benchmark analysis and guidelines to facilitate the drafting of Textile Culture Net’s new digital strategy.

Through a series of 1-to-1 consultancy and coaching meetings, BAM! will continue to support organisations in implementing the strategy until the end of 2023.

The project is funded by the Creative Europe Programme and headed by Lottozero, the Italian partner of Textile Culture Net.