Culture24

Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum,[1] is a British charity which publishes websites, weareculture24, Museum Crush and Show Me, about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to other cultural websites including Engaging Places.[1]

Culture24
Founded2001
Location
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Jane Finnis
Employees
10
Websiteweareculture24.org.uk museumcrush.org letsgetrealconference.com
Formerly called
24 Hour Museum

It operates independently, and receives government funding.[1][2]

Organisation

Culture24 is based in Brighton, southern England, and has ten employees.[3] The Culture24 Director is Jane Finnis, who contributed a chapter to Learning to Live: Museums, young people and education[4] and in March 2010 was named as one of 50 "Women to Watch" in the United Kingdom cultural and creative sectors by the Cultural Leadership Programme.[5] The Culture24 chairman is John Newbigin, who was named as one of Wired Magazine's top 100 people shaping the digital world in May 2010.[6]

The charity was founded in 2001 as the 24 Hour Museum,[7] when the website of the same name[8] became an independent company.

The organisation changed its name to Culture24 in November 2007,[9] and the website followed suit on 11 February 2009.[1] Culture24 is a registered charity and is funded by the UK government through Arts Council England (ACE).

Purpose

The (now defunct) Museums, Libraries and Archives Council was working with Culture24 as one of its partners in furthering the council's digital agenda, specifically helping to deliver:

More and better quality information on cultural opportunities to the public

A coherent portal for cultural resources for teachers and learners
Greater interaction with individuals and communities through use of Web 2.0 and social networking tools
High quality standards in the management and preservation of digital resources.[10]

Culture24 also administers Museums at Night (UK), the annual weekend of late openings at museums, galleries and heritage sites.[11]

Websites

The main Culture24 website is a guide to museums, public galleries, libraries, archives, heritage sites and science centres. It has a database of over 5,000 cultural institutions,[12] who are able to update the information about their activities. It features daily arts, museum, history and heritage news, and exhibition reviews. News stories are available as RSS newsfeed.

Culture24 also runs a site for children, Show Me, which has online activities related to UK museums and galleries, including interactive games, quizzes and competitions. A section of the site contains guidance for parents and teachers about using online resources from museums and galleries.

In 2009, Culture24 was runner-up in the Nominet Trust Best Practice Challenge.[13] The Culture24 suite of websites won the 2010 "best of the web" award (long lived category) at the Museums and the Web Conference.[14] Culture24 is also listed as one of the Guardian's top 100 essential websites,[15] and one of the Sunday Times' top 10 museum websites.[16]

References
  1. "Useful Contacts: Culture24". Directgov. Her Majesty's Government. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  2. Charity Commission. Culture24, registered charity no. 085847.
  3. "Meet the team". Culture24. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  4. Kate Bellamy and Carey Oppenheim, ed. (13 May 2009). "Learning to Live: Museums, young people and education". Institute for Public Policy Research. Archived from the original on 24 May 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  5. "Women to Watch: Jane Finnis, Director, Culture24". Cultural Leadership Programme. Archived from the original on 29 January 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  6. "The Wired 100". Wired UK. Conde Nast. 1 April 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  7. "Culture24 company information". Companies House. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  8. "24 Hour Museum Goes Live". BBC. 13 May 1999. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  9. Jack Schofield (9 June 2008). "Virtually the best of British heritage". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  10. "MLA's approach to the digital agenda". Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. 2008. Archived from the original on 13 November 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  11. "Museums at Night homepage". Culture24. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  12. "Culture24 venue search results". Culture24. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  13. "Nominet Best Practice Challenge 2009 Winners" (PDF). Nominet UK. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  14. "Congratulations to the MW2010 Best of the Web Winners!" Archived 8 July 2012 at Archive.today 16 April 2010.
  15. Schofield, Jack; Johnson, Bobbie; Arthur, Charles; O'Connor, Stuart; Bunz, Mercedes; Keegan, Victor (9 December 2009). "The 100 essential websites". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  16. Mike Peake (7 February 2010). "The 10 best museum websites". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
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