Museum is a child’s play.
Playing games (digital and non-digital) in the museum context to engage youngsters

The project aims to use gamification processes tailored to museum spaces with the goal of attracting new audiences, promoting cultural content and knowledge transfer.
The actors involved were the administrative director of the Treviso Civic Museums, Luigi Bailo, head of activities, exhibition activities and special projects of the museum, Venetian Cluster director, Venetian Cluster junior project manager, Venetian Cluster junior communication and marketing, and Pleiadi Group scientific director and education manager.

The Treviso Civic Museums is an institution with three locations within the city walls: the Santa Caterina Museum, the Luigi Bailo Museum and Casa Robegan. The institution’s primary objective is to safeguard and disseminate the artistic and cultural heritage it holds, pursuing the desire for preservation initiated by Luigi Bailo. The different museums of the institution allow for a rich cultural offer, but at the same time they lead to some difficulties in managing internal and external communication.

The primary need identified was to engage the 14-25 age group, for which the theme of play is considered a key aspect to engage the new audience of young people and generate in them a sense of belonging to a place thanks to serialized activities to be carried out within the museums. This is intertwined with the need to employ different communication strategies.

The Pleiadi Group is a social cooperative society that works in the educational field to bring younger people closer to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) disciplines through interactive workshops within schools, events to engage young people and adults, and content creation to educate and inform target audiences: they define themselves as scientists who provide interactive hands-on experiences tailored to children, adults, schools, universities, collaborators, companies, families, institutions and multinational companies (www.pleiadi.net)).

Venetian Cluster is a productive cluster dedicated to cultural and environmental heritage in Italy (www.venetiancluster.eu). Its primary objective is to implement national and international innovative projects aimed at technology transfer, internalization of services and training of the public-private supply chain of the cultural and environmental sectors.  It coordinates public and private partners, offering services in the search for regional, national and international funds for project development, technical and scientific consulting, innovative IT marketing, assistance with innovation services and technologies, training and coaching, and development of innovative activities for thematic tourism.

From the various meetings, from the first willingness exhibited by the Treviso Civic Museums to attract younger generations through the theme of gaming, the project has developed into a solution that involves people physically present at the museum, following gamification and riddling paths through artistic works and exhibits in analog format, leaving out the idea of using AR or VR technologies. This is a more economically sustainable solution that welcomes the possibility of leaving the visitor with something tangible, such as a gadget. The escape room concept is not new or perceived by the public as new, but it is uncommon to find this solution within a museum.

This is an interesting example of project design that focuses on communication between the actors involved and emphasizes how different organizations can be compatible in meeting each other’s needs. No timeline has been identified and there are currently no internal financial resources available for the project, again highlighting a difficulty in finding and managing resources for a public institution.