Press Releases

20 June 2002

 

Tessa Jowell Announces £13 Million Funding To Develop Projects For Culture Online

The school curriculum and adult learning will be enlivened by a series of Culture Online projects to be launched this year, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell announced today.

Culture Online (COL) will use the latest technologies - via the Internet and other digital platforms – to offer new forms of access to the nation’s cultural resources. As well as providing key resources for schools, it will allow people around the country to learn from and participate in a variety of innovative new projects. By inspiring and motivating children and adults, Culture Online will encourage them to interact with the arts, heritage and culture in new and more creative ways.

£13m of funding will be available to fund this stage of Culture Online, covering the period 2002 to 2004. The money will be spent on 20 to 30 targeted projects. Drawing on the varied resources of cultural institutions, the projects will be accessible in a variety of ways including an online gateway linked to Curriculum Online and the National Grid for Learning, both run by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

Announcing the funding Tessa Jowell said:

“Culture Online has the potential to transform people’s experience of the arts, dissolving barriers of distance, time or attitude. By allowing children and adults to access the rich resources of our cultural sector they will acquire a world class educational and recreational tool.

“These new projects will demonstrate what is possible by creating a ‘digital bridge’ linking new digital technology with cultural resources, educational institutions and homes. I hope they will prove a powerful learning asset offering children and adults new insights into our wonderful cultural heritage.”

DCMS will shortly be inviting organisations to put forward proposals for involvement in projects. Criteria for the assessment of proposals will also be published.

Projects might, for example, deliver:

• interactive technology allowing people to see a major exhibition at a national museum that they were unable to visit. The experience could be enhanced through digital television, the web, and connections with other events throughout the country. The museum could also collaborate with television companies, historic sites and local museums with relevant collections. This would enable people to explore the history, influences and inspirations behind a great painter’s work, or to participate in a local project inspired by the exhibition.
• a cross-curricular project on the impact of the Second World War, incorporating a virtual tour of London during the Blitz designed by a computer games company, recordings of local people’s wartime experiences collected by a group of museums working with schoolchildren, and the creation of a digital storybook showing how the region changed as a result of the war.

Culture Online projects will unite the abilities of cultural organisations and the private sector, including broadcasters, education professionals and those on the cutting edge of digital technology, to create innovative, high quality resources for adults and children.

Notes for Editors

1 The Department was awarded £5m Development Funding for Culture Online. It engaged independent business strategy consultants to conduct a full economic options appraisal which set out a business plan for COL. A further £10m has been allocated for the production of 20-30 targeted projects for children and adults over the next two years.

2 Culture Online is an integral part of the DCMS e-business strategy, which in itself is a response to the Government’s commitment to the UK Online programme. This programme aims to ensure everyone who wants it has access to the Internet by 2005 and that all Government services are online by that date and to make Britain one of the leading knowledge economies.

3 The Culture Online vision is available at www.cultureonline.gov.uk