The MMFA, Musée POP, DigiHub and Musée de la civilisation join forces to create innovative digital solutions for all Quebec museums

With activities gradually resuming, new health regulations are transforming the ways in which visitors, collections and museum professionals interact. PRISM, the digital laboratory of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts – MMFA, Muséolab (Musée POP, in collaboration with DigiHub) and MLab Creaform, the digital laboratory of the Musée de la civilisation, are launching calls for projects and making their resources available to museums to come up with new digital mediation tools. These will give visitors the opportunity to enjoy new, enriching museum experiences, even in the context of a pandemic.

Three calls for projects to support Quebec's recovery
For nearly two years, DigiHub and Musée POP have been working with the teams at the MMFA’s PRISM and the Musée de la civilisation’s MLab Creaform to support the museum community in digital mediation. It therefore seemed only natural to coordinate their efforts to support the relaunch of museums, artists and businesses in Quebec's digital sector, by sharing knowledge and creating adapted technological solutions.

1. PRISM ⎢ MMFA
Funded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec in the context of the implementation of measure 115 of Quebec’s Digital Cultural Plan, PRISM, the MMFA's digital innovation laboratory, is appealing to the 240 members of its network (consisting of university researchers, technology creators and museum professionals) and DigiHub companies to create four innovation cells, starting in June and in the fall, that will focus on common issues. Based on design thinking, these intensive collaborative projects will last 12 weeks and will draw on the resources of the three digital laboratories.

2. MLab Creaform ⎢ Musée de la civilisation
Companies are invited to submit projects to be jointly executed with the Museum’s team. The prototypes developed in the fall of 2020 will explore innovative digital practices for the museum and entrepreneurial sectors. The aim of these projects will be to create, test, analyze, validate and demonstrate innovative digital cultural educational, social, artistic, heritage or sociocultural experiences. The expertise developed through the projects will enable the company to experiment with an idea, a bold new product accessible to the Museum's clientele. The companies selected will receive financial support in the form of a grant under Quebec City’s economic development strategy. To view the call for proposals: https://mlab.mcq.org/concours

3. Muséolab ⎢ Musée POP
During the month of June, DigiHub companies will be invited to submit projects to address current issues. These will be funded by Muséolab as part of the Startup Québec program of the Ministère de l’Économie et de l'Innovation du Québec. The call for projects follows a brainstorming meeting on issues with associated with COVID-19, which took place in May. Since it was founded nearly three years ago, Muséolab has made it possible to create three digital prototypes, which were first tested at Musée POP and then made available to other museums in Quebec and elsewhere. A fourth prototype is also being created and will be tested in the fall.