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This paper aims to explore the Google Arts and Culture platform in terms of parameters used for categorizing the digital collections by it; the total number of items and their types; top contributing artists; top ten historical events and figures; and the top ten countries having maximum artworks.

An online method was used to collect the relevant data for achieving the objectives of the study. Data were harvested from the official website of Google Arts and Culture (https://artsandculture.google.com/) during the period of 15 May to 31 May 2018, and the same was tabulated in MS Excel for analysis and interpretation.

The findings revealed that Google Arts and Culture includes a total of 6,272 artists, 228 media and 121 art movements. Moreover, there are a total of 641 historical movements; 6,250 historical figures; 9,692 places; 3,226 museum views; 1,702 zoom views; 39,607 featured videos; and 5,528 featured stories; 122 items organized by color and 954 organized by time.

The present study is first of its kind that focuses on exploration of diverse arts and cultural heritages of different countries and by diverse artists made visible by Google Arts and Culture initiative. It will significantly reinforce the art and cultural heritage lovers to acquire the knowledge pertinent to various types of arts and cultures that prevailed in antiquity across the globe and also make aware the conservators about how to use digital technologies for efficient preservation and visibility of unique artworks, artists and the places whom they belong.

This article analyzes an approach to public diplomacy that involves leveraging local voices. It demonstrates the power of culture, particularly in collective settings such as festivals, to engage citizens in countering violent extremism, building peace and tolerance, and fighting corruption. Four case studies from Mali illustrate how integrating historical and living culture into peace-building strategies works effectively in this West African nation torn by jihadist and ethnic strife.

The author has used a field-based approach. The conclusions presented here are based on her own experiences in Mali, as well as hundreds of conversations with Malian colleagues and officials. The cultural diplomacy/soft power/hard power framework for the article is based on her own experiences as US Ambassador to the Netherlands, 1998–2001.

Culture, especially music, has unparalleled and untapped capacity to bring people together across differences in Mali, and to inspire them to envision a positive future for their country, and to work to achieve it. The lessons from the Mali case studies can be applied elsewhere.

These Malian case studies demonstrate that culture belongs at the center and not the periphery of peace-building. They also show the efficacy of the “leverage local voices” approach to cultural diplomacy. The findings here are based on my experiences and those of others working in Mali.

Based on the findings from these Malian case studies, local cultural expression and actors should be integrated into efforts to build peace and counter violent extremism.

These Malian case studies also demonstrate that shared cultural events help build social cohesion in societies frayed by conflict and/or violent extremism. In countries with high illiteracy rates like Mali, song lyrics help convey socio-political messages of peace, tolerance, and unity.

The “leverage local voices” approach to cultural diplomacy offers a different model than the traditional method of sending artists from the originating country (such as the USA) abroad. Local voices – whether living or from the past, as in the case of the Timbuktu manuscripts – have greater credibility and resonance than foreign ones. That culture works so effectively toward reconciliation, social cohesion and building peace in one of the most challenging environments in the world – Mali – suggests that other countries and regions should also explore and exploit the power of culture to dampen violence and orient the population to living together harmoniously.

The study aims to paint a representative picture of the current state of search interfaces of Swedish online museum collections, focussing on search functionalities with particular reference to subject searching, as well as the use of controlled vocabularies, with the purpose of identifying which improvements of the search interfaces are needed to ensure high-quality information retrieval for the end user.

In the first step, a set of 21 search interface criteria was identified, based on related research and current standards in the domain of cultural heritage knowledge organization. Secondly, a complete set of Swedish museums that provide online access to their collections was identified, comprising nine cross-search services and 91 individual museums' websites. These 100 websites were each evaluated against the 21 criteria, between 1 July and 31 August 2020.

Although many standards and guidelines are in place to ensure quality-controlled subject indexing, which in turn support information retrieval of relevant resources (as individual or full search results), the study shows that they are not broadly implemented, resulting in information retrieval failures for the end user. The study also demonstrates a strong need for the implementation of controlled vocabularies in these museums.

This study is a rare piece of research which examines subject searching in online museums; the 21 search criteria and their use in the analysis of the complete set of online collections of a country represents a considerable and unique contribution to the fields of knowledge organization and information retrieval of cultural heritage. Its particular value lies in showing how the needs of end users, many of which are documented and reflected in international standards and guidelines, should be taken into account in designing search tools for these museums; especially so in subject searching, which is the most complex and yet the most common type of search. Much effort has been invested into digitizing cultural heritage collections, but access to them is hindered by poor search functionality. This study identifies which are the most important aspects to improve.

This study aimed at understanding the use of paintings outside of an art-related context, in the English version of Wikipedia.

For this investigation, the authors identified 8,104 paintings used in 10,008 articles of the English Wikipedia edition. The authors manually coded the topic of the article in question, documented the number of monthly average views and identified the originating museum. They analysed the use of images based on frequency of use, frequency of view, associated topics and location. Early in the analysis three distinct perspectives emerged: the readers of the online encyclopaedia, the editors of the articles and the museum organisations providing the painting images (directly or indirectly).

Wikipedia is a widely used online information resource where images of paintings serve as visual reference to illustrate articles, notably also beyond an art-related topic and where no alternative image is available – as in the case of historic portraits. Editors used paintings as illustration of the work itself or art-related movement, but also as illustration of past events, as alternative to photographs, as well as to represent a concept or technique. Images have been used to illustrate up to 76 articles, evidencing the polysemic nature of paintings. The authors conclude that images of paintings are highly valuable information sources, also beyond an art-related context. They also find that Wikipedia is an important dissemination channel for museum collections. While art-related articles contain greater number of paintings, these receive less views than non-art-related articles containing fewer paintings. Readers of all topics, predominantly history, science and geographic articles, viewed art pieces outside of an art context. Painting images in Wikipedia receive a much larger online audience than the physical painting does when compared to the number of museum onsite visitors. The authors’ results confirm the presence of a strong long-tail pattern in the frequency of image use (only 3% of painting images are used in a Wikipedia article), image view and museums represented, characteristic of network dynamics of the Internet.

While this is the first analysis of the complete collection of paintings in the English Wikipedia, the authors’ results are conservative as many paintings are not identified as such in Wikidata, used for automatic harvesting. Tools to analyse image view specifically are not yet available and user privacy is highly protected, limiting the disaggregation of user data. This study serves to document a lack of diversity in image availability for global online consumption, favouring well-known Western objects. At the same time, the study evidences the need to diversify the use of images to reflect a more global perspective, particularly where paintings are used to represent concepts of techniques.

Museums wanting to increase visibility can target the reuse of their collections in non-art-related articles, which received 88% of all views in the authors’ sample. Given the few museums collaborating with the Wikimedia Foundation and the apparent inefficiency resulting from leaving the use of paintings as illustration to the crowd, as only 3% of painting images are used, suggests further collaborative efforts to reposition museum content may be beneficial.

This paper highlights the reach of Wikipedia as information source, where museum content can be positioned to reach a greater user group beyond the usual museum visitor, in turn increasing visual and digital literacy.

This is the first study that documents the frequency of use and views, the topical use and the originating institution of “all the paintings” in the English Wikipedia edition.

The aim of this study is to investigate how the information needs satisfaction of visual art teachers affects their creativity. Visual art teachers’ information seeking behaviour and specifically the association of information needs satisfaction with creativity has been an understudied area, despite competent information seeking being considered essential for high quality practices of art teachers.

A questionnaire survey was developed addressing the information seeking behaviour of art teachers, informed by Wilson’s model (1981), including visual art teachers’ information needs, information resources, obstacles faced while seeking information and the perceived impact of information needs satisfaction on visual art teachers’ creativity.

The study included 298 visual art teachers in Greece. The results demonstrated that the key information needs of art teachers were mainly related to materials’ properties, techniques for creating artwork and artwork promotion methods. Online information sources were the preferred sources of art information, followed by colleagues, personal collections and visits to galleries and museums. Our study identified lack of time, lack of specialized libraries and copyright, as the main barriers to information seeking.

Information about art plays a substantial role in visual art education, while visual art teachers’ information needs satisfaction positively influences their creative endeavours. There is a need to further explore the digital information needs of visual art teachers.

Large cultural heritage datasets from museum collections tend to be biased and demonstrate omissions that result from a series of decisions at various stages of the collection construction. The purpose of this study is to apply a set of ethical criteria to compare the level of bias of six online databases produced by two major art museums, identifying the most biased and the least biased databases.

At the first stage, the relevant data have been automatically extracted from all six databases and mapped to a unified ontological scheme based on Wikidata. Then, the authors applied ethical criteria to the results of the geographical distribution of records provided by two major art museums as online databases accessed via museums' websites, API datasets and datasets submitted to Wikidata.

The authors show that the museums use different artworks in each of its online databases and each data-base has different types of bias reflected by the study variables, such as artworks' country of origin or the creator's nationality. For most variables, the database behind the online search system on the museum's website is more balanced and ethical than the API dataset and Wikidata databases of the two museums.

By applying ethical criteria to the analysis of cultural bias in various museum databases aimed at different audiences including end users, researchers and commercial institutions, this paper shows the importance of explicating bias and maintaining integrity in cultural heritage representation through different channels that potentially have high impact on how culture is perceived, disseminated, contextualized and transformed.

Purpose: In the experience economy, the main challenge for museums is not only to attract visitors but also to preserve artworks. Given this circumstance, this chapter aims to offer an overview of how these cultural organisations have emerged as labs of the future culture, where all kind of technological experiments are tested so as to fulfil their mission.

Design/methodology/approach: This chapter is based on extensive literature review on issues related to robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in the museum sector. Examples illustrate the role of technology in the experience design and preservation of cultural resources.

Findings: 1) A chronological framework of museums’ orientations is established to understand the evolution toward the technology-driven present period. 2) Robots, artificial intelligence and service automation have a meaningful contribution to make in guaranteeing visitor arrivals. 3) This technological phase requires a tourism workforce with new skills.

Research limitations/implications: Few academic studies concerning to the use of robots, artificial intelligence and service automation in the museum sector were found. Hence, more empirical studies are required to completely corroborate the chapter’s suggestions.

Practical implications: An enlightening path for the service design of multisensory and participatory is proposed, as a useful guide for heritage managers, marketing practitioners and tourism planners.

Originality/value: Museum management has been always receiving the attention of managers, policymakers, scholars, among others. Insights of how technology enhances heritage preservation and the improvement of museum services throughout numerous examples can direct them to increase knowledge and adopt these practices.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how researchers in the field of arts marketing are gradually abandoning the traditional marketing concept in order to respond to established and emerging modes of audience engagement.

The study is based on a comprehensive content analysis of the past three decades of journal articles related to arts marketing.

The results of the content analysis highlight that a paradigm shift in arts marketing has occurred over the past two decades, from an overriding focus on neoliberal processes of consumption towards a relational, humanistic approach, which aims to enrich audiences and interrogate the wider value and impact of their arts experiences.

The logical conclusion to be derived from this paradigmatic shift is that “arts marketing” is increasingly becoming an outmoded misnomer, which suggests the need for a fundamental reassessment of the traditional arts marketing concept.

In order to develop meaningful relationships with audiences, arts and cultural organisations should prioritise the long-term relational approaches offered by audience engagement over short-term tactical activities such as segmentation and promotion.

The paper advocates a radical reconceptualization of the field that would replace the transactional 4P model with a relational 4E model, derived from an adoption of theories, processes and practices related to the elements of experience, exchange, environment and engagement.

This study analyses the role of tourism in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the need to integrate sustainability into tourism policies, which contribute to the development and accessibility of technologies and the quality of society.

This study reviews the accessibility of the tourism industry and the expansion of smart tourism in terms of sustainability, reviewing a wide range of research papers and analysing the concepts, findings and approaches suggested by scientists from various countries, as well as examples from the Baltic States.

The results reveal that the tourism industry is capable of adapting to changing conditions in modern society in a short enough period, thus contributing to the expansion of smart tourism and their active implementation at tourist attractions. In view of the goals set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the accessibility of tourist attractions to various social groups should be provided through cooperation between public and private organizations.

This study explores the accessibility of tourism attractions and the development of smart tourism in the context of sustainability. Further, the article analyses some best practice examples from the Baltic States, which underpin the adaptation of the tourism industry to the changing conditions, as well as indicating the adaptation of the industry to the demands of modern society.