Total Value of the Project (in euro) - 586 778,77 of which 100% is the size of the grant, provided by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area (EEA);
Beneficiary: Plovdiv Municipality
Project Partners: "Ivan Vazov" National Library, Regional Archeological Museum – Plovdiv, Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv, Regional Historical Museum – Plovdiv, City Gallery of Fine Arts – Plovdiv, and "Ancient Plovdiv" Municipal Institute.
About the project:
The project's objective is to carry out the first program for digitization of movable and immovable cultural heritage of Plovdiv, a city famous for being one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Europe. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the Municipality of Plovdiv decided to work in partnership with the six most important local cultural institutions: "Ivan Vazov" National Library, Regional Archeological Museum – Plovdiv, Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv, Regional Historical Museum – Plovdiv, City Gallery of Fine Arts – Plovdiv, and "Ancient Plovdiv" Municipal Institute.
During the project a state-of-the-art digital center has been established, consisting of two permanent facilities for digitization as well as of four additional mobile digital stations situated in the partnering cultural institutions. The project has resulted in improved access to museum collections and archival resources. In the course of the project, an ethnographic expedition has been carried out by representatives of Roma community in order to digitize Romani history and heritage. The project successfully achieved its target to produce at least 50 000 digital objects representing the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the city of Plovdiv.
A wide range of stakeholders benefited from the project. As a result, researchers will receive better opportunities to conduct research on Plovdiv's cultural heritage. Residents of Plovdiv will be able to learn more about the history of their own city. People of Roma origin will acquire new knowledge concerning their own cultural heritage.
Project results:
- Two digital centers (permanent facilities for digitization) working in the area of cultural heritage.
- One of these digital centers was newly established in a completely renovated building, located on 10 Tsanko Lavrenov str., Plovdiv.
- The second digital center, located in the "Ivan Vazov" National Library, was upgraded with new equipment;
- Four mobile stations for digitization have been created – they are situated in the following four project partners: Regional Archeological Museum – Plovdiv, Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv, Regional Historical Museum – Plovdiv and City Gallery of Fine Arts – Plovdiv.
- All project partners received digitization equipment such as А0 scanner, A2 scanners, A3 scanners, film scanners, mobile 3-D scanners, photo studios, etc.
- 50 000 units of movable cultural heritage from the funds of the partnering institutions (books, art objects, ethnographic artifacts, exhibits, etc. have been digitized for the first time;
- 5000 digitized units of Roma cultural heritage- tangible and intangible culture;
- Information about the cultural heritage of Plovdiv and the region stored in electronic form;
- 30 sites, monuments of national importance, located in the city of Plovdiv digitized in 3D models.
- Specialized equipment for digital center is purchased;
- 7 partnerships have been created with 7 institutions engaged in the project implementation;
- 12 employees from partnering cultural institutions have been trained to conduct digitization;
- 3 representatives of Roma community have been trained in the area of digitization;
- A manager and two IT professionals have been hired to work in the digital center.
Start date: 30 April, 2015
End date: 30 April, 2017