Background
Across rural Europe, museums face common challenges: limited engagement with local communities, underutilisation as spaces for adult learning, and difficulties in adapting to digital transformation. Often perceived mainly as tourist destinations, rural museums struggle to respond to the learning needs of adults, particularly those with low digital skills or limited access to lifelong learning opportunities.
At the same time, many adults in rural areas experience barriers to participation in education and cultural life, increasing the risk of social exclusion and weakening community cohesion.
MusEducate addresses these challenges by reimagining rural museums as community-driven hubs of adult education. Through intergenerational learning, digital storytelling, and gamified experiences, the project empowers museums and local communities to co-create inclusive learning pathways, strengthen social cohesion, and promote shared ownership of cultural heritage.
Our Aim
The overall aim of MusEducate is to strengthen the educational role of rural museums by transforming them into inclusive, community-driven hubs for adult learning across Europe. Recognising persistent challenges related to limited community engagement, low digital participation among adults, and the underutilisation of museums as learning spaces, the project seeks to equip museums, cultural professionals, and local communities with the knowledge, tools, and capacities required to modernise museum-based education.
Through a comprehensive programme of participatory activities, intergenerational collaboration, and the co-creation of digital storytelling and gamified learning experiences, MusEducate aims to enhance adults’ digital, cultural, and social competences while fostering inclusion, lifelong learning, and active citizenship. By strengthening collaboration between museums, adult education providers, community groups, and other local stakeholders—and by embedding community participation at the core of museum practices—the project aspires to create a sustainable framework that reinforces social cohesion, community ownership of heritage, and the long-term relevance of rural museums within their local ecosystems.
Objectives
- To enhance digital competence and storytelling skills of adult learners (aged 25–65), including low-skilled adults, rural entrepreneurs, and tourism professionals, through the creation of gamified digital narratives linked to museum artefacts, supporting employability and lifelong learning.
- To increase civic engagement and community ownership of cultural heritage by actively involving local residents in museum-based workshops, pilot actions, and events, transforming rural museums into community-driven spaces that promote shared values, participation, and environmental awareness.
- To deepen understanding of cultural heritage and sustainability among adult learners and museum professionals through digital storytelling and a dedicated MOOC, encouraging sustainable behaviours and long-term preservation of heritage.
- To develop innovative educational resources and learning spaces by creating a multilingual digital platform and piloting rural museums as accessible, inclusive hubs for adult learning.
Target Groups
- Adult learners, including rural entrepreneurs, tourism workers, low-skilled adults, young adults facing social or geographical barriers, and disadvantaged groups
- Museum staff and cultural professionals, supported to adopt innovative, community-based educational practices
- Local communities, engaged through workshops, pilot activities, open days, and shared cultural events