At the beginning of 2021, ICOM Latvia and ICOM Lithuania received funding from the ICOM Solidarity Fund for the implementation of the project “Museum Tendencies and Perspectives: Focus on Lithuania and Latvia”. The challenge for museums around the world in the nearest future is to retain visitors and attract new audiences. Due to travel restrictions, there is a tendency to focus on local visitors or visitors from neighboring countries. The project “Museum Tendencies and Perspectives: Focus on Lithuania and Latvia” is a study of the Lithuanian and Latvian museum sector experience during COVID-19 restrictions and lessons we can draw from this experience to continue to unlock museums potential to attract regional audiences.

The aims of this project are:

1) to study actions and strategies of museums to target regional audience,

2) to study how museums adapt to changes brought by COVID-19,

3) to provide recommendations to attract regional audiences regularly/repeatedly.

The long-term goal of the project is to promote the development of museum offer for regional audiences.

In the summer of 2021, in cooperation with researchers from Vilnius University and the Latvian Academy of Culture, a study was conducted in Latvian and Lithuanian museums. Interviews with Lithuanian and Latvian museum staff were prepared with the involvement of professional filmmakers. ICOM Lithuania also prepared a report for the Lithuanian National Television Culture Channel on the initiated research.

An online conference will be held on November 23, 2021, where researchers will inform about the results of the research. Representatives of Latvian and Lithuanian museums and the tourism industry also will give presentations at the conference.

The conference will take place on the online platform Zoom, it will also be broadcast on the ICOM Lithuania Facebook page and the ICOM Latvia Facebook page.