NEO Collections* is a collaborative project that provides an opportunity to try out new working methods and concepts together, thus increasing our understanding of how digital curation and outreach can be further developed and shared between different cultural institutions.
*"NEO Collections. Nutzerzentriert. Explorativ. Offen. Digitale Museumssammlungen im 21. Jahrhundert" / "NEO Collections. User-centred. Explorative. Open: Digital Museum Collections in the 21st Century".
Call for NEO Collections Fellowship
Nationalmuseum invites international cultural practitioners to apply for a digital residency starting in April 2023. Find out more about the fellowship.
Timeline
2020–2024 (ongoing project)
Collaborating Institutions
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Übersee-Museum Bremen
Nationalmuseum Stockholm
Funding
NEO Collections is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation as part of their Digital Culture programme. Funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.

Goals
How can we improve accessibility to digitalised museum collections and create a more intuitive experience? How can we incorporate the audience’s knowledge and ideas into the development process of digital applications?
The NEO Collections project is based on the principles of open access and participation and strives to find new ways to engage with museum collections – both digitally and in the museum itself. The project focuses on free-licence, open-source and free software solutions.
This project is a collaboration between the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, the Übersee-Museum Bremen and the Nationalmuseum in Sweden. With Digital Identities as our digital partner, we want to explore how we can involve visitors, users, and museum staff in order to effectively integrate different storylines and perspectives into the development and presentation of the collections.
The Project
A feedback-driven approach is fundamental to this project: this involves the development of prototypes for each institution and intense testing and reflection before the implementation of the final version. We will consider different user groups and their specific needs. The partners anticipate that workflows in their institutions will continue to evolve in the context of ongoing digital transformation, from the digital cataloguing of collections to the development of digital services. NEO Collections creates a space to test new collaborative methods and ways of working together, thus increasing our understanding of how digital curation and outreach can be further developed and shared between different cultural institutions.
More inforamtion
- https://medium.com/neocollections
- https://www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/de/projekte/film_und_neue_medien/detail/neo_collections.html
- https://www.mkg-hamburg.de/en/neo-lab
- https://www.uebersee-museum.de/ueber-uns/projekte-positionen/neo-collections/