img.: the project partners in Macerata

On the occasion of the CitizenHeritage conference “The role of photographic heritage in empowering communities’ participation in cultural heritage” organized by Photoconsortium, I2 partners convened in Italy for an intense week of travels and work.

The international conference was organized in Pisa at the Museo della Grafica, with a focus on engaging communities with cultural heritage especially in an educational context. The conference programme comprised a number of expert talks to illustrate successful stories of citizen participation in Cultural Heritage Institutions and Higher Education Institutions.

In this light, the experience and research conducted in I2 project were brilliantly highlighted in a comprehensive talk, delivered by Heleen Van den Haute and Ria Christens:

Schools’ photographic heritage as a tool for education (Heleen Van den Haute, Heilig Hart Instituut; Ria Christens, CE Annuntiaten; prof. Marta Brunelli, University of Macerata): download PDF

The programme included a visit to the exhibitions on display at the Museo della Grafica and a collection&digitization day of photos from family albums that participants offered for digitization to be then shared online in Europeana, the European digital library.

After the conference, a I2 partners’ meeting was also organized, to discuss about the next activities of the project, particularly including an upcoming online workshop aimed to develop a project’s manifesto, and various dissemination resources, which will be published in the next period.

The next day, the partners travelled to Macerata, to visit the renewed Museo della Scuola “Paolo e Ornella Ricca” of the University of Macerata, which aims to collect and display heritage collections of educational materials and to deliver laboratories and educational activities to schools. A presentation of the educational project by University of Macerata followed.

After the visit, a second partners’ meeting was organized in hybrid format, to review the formalities of EC reporting and to start discussing the programme of the exchange week in UK, hosted by partner Harlaxton College in October 2022.



I2 Identity and Innovation is co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union