Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest Online Participatory Workshop Tuesday 15 December

The Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest will host its third online participatory workshop with local stakeholders on Tuesday 15th December .

The previous two online participatory workshops focused on sustainable tourism and especially on the development and promotion of alternative forms of tourism. Representatives of the local authorities and the tourism sector had the opportunity to exchange views and discuss ideas on how the rich natural and cultural heritage of the island could be used as a driving force for rural regeneration.

The third workshop will focus on the challenges and difficulties the cultural sector is facing and how it could deal with the current situation, or even use it for its benefit, in order to promote the cultural wealth of Lesvos through various activities and initiatives involving all the local communities, and thus contributing to the island’s regeneration.

The impacts of covid-19 in the cultural sector were disastrous.  Local museums, cultural institutions and organizations are struggling to survive and dealing with a huge reduction on income. At the same time they are trying to keep up with consecutive lockdowns, with the fast and radical social changes, as well as the needs and the expectations of their audiences. On the other hand, to many cultural organizations the pandemic offered the opportunity to the digital world enter dynamically , build digital bridges with the local communities and moreover, reach a wider or even a global audience. They started investing in digitizing collections and archives, producing quality digital content, organizing online educational programs and events and strengthening their social media presence. Digital transformation though needs expertise, resources and funds.

In times like these, the need for collaborations and exchange of knowledge and expertise between the professionals of the cultural sector is vital. Thus, the aim of the workshop is to invite representatives of the museums of Lesvos, the cultural organizations and agencies that work to protect its cultural heritage in order to collaborate and form a network for joint actions aiming at supporting the island’s recovery from the successive crises and serving the local population.