From Museum Districts to Cultural Districts. Linked Open Museums as a Cultural Strategy

Museums are but a single piece of a city’s cultural network, made up by institutions such as libraries, schools, archives, cinemas, theatres, cultural and creative activities and associations. Furthermore, civic museums need to be found and used, and, just like the data on the web, they need to be open, permeable, interconnected and interoperable with one another and all cultural activities of the district they belong to. Organising museums according to territorial criteria certainly helps their management and allows the sharing of specialised professionals as well as of projects and goals related to citizenship. Milan City Council’s programme goes beyond simply mapping a community or a neighbourhood. We know the location of monuments, cultural venues, cultural associations, and the contacts that exist in a given area. Now, the programme aims to create a civic structure that will be readily available to the city and capable of connecting both public and private institutions, as well as professionals and individual users, in a constant and stimulating relationship. This process is certainly complex and require time and effort. Therefore, we are constantly and carefully considering every aspect of the project by sharing, discussing and evaluating every proposal. The city’s temporary offer, which involves museums, can significantly contribute to this process, in particular through the “City” and “Week” palimpsests: the DesignWeek, FashionWeek and BookCity can create synergies between the public and private sectors as well as identify stakeholders who do not directly produce cultural activities, but who draw attention to the city’s cultural life. During events, different areas of the city come alive in different ways. The configuration of the districts allows the use of different common spaces (squares and gardens). The civic museums themselves are included in the timetable of the main events, becoming cultural hubs and platforms where creativity is combined with knowledge, which visitors can interact and share with. Recurring events can also connect users with cultural organisations and companies by addressing different audiences, fostering connections, ensuring more stable relationships and promoting a sense of belonging to the territory where they take place.