Helping the sector thrive

More than ever, heritage organisations are looking to develop their use of digital technology so they can move towards a more resilient, creative future. Our £4.1million Digital Skills for Heritage initiative is designed to help them thrive.

Since launching in 2020, we have funded projects, activities and resources designed to reflect the varying needs, locations, sizes and levels of digital experience of heritage organisations, including:

• 70 Digital Skills for Heritage projects
• 7,510 individual skills support opportunities
• 8,232 participants in the online DASH surveys

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How we are helping you

Digital resource centre

Teams from Arts Marketing Association, University of Leeds and The Heritage Alliance have researched and consulted with the sector to find organisations' 100 most pressing digital questions. The answers are published on their Digital Heritage Hub.

Support with innovation, enterprise and business planning

Though their Heritage Digital Academy, Charity Digital Trust are helping heritage organisations use digital within strategic and operational planning. Check their site to join free training, webinars and events. 

Digital skills for leaders

The second round of Leading the Sector – which helped trustees and executives from across the heritage sector expand their organisations’ digital capabilities – has come to a close, but you can still watch recordings of the webinars on Culture 24's YouTube channel. Read our interviews with participants from the first round of the programme and a blog written by Culture24's Anra Kennedy. A new leadership 'pathway' tool has been created to help other heritage leaders. 

Digital skills development

The Digital Heritage Lab and Heritage Digital programmes offered training, webinars and resources to help heritage organisations develop their digital capabilities across a range of areas – including marketing, content creation and data protection. Many great recordings and resources are available on their websites.

Networked communities and digital volunteering

We have funded eight networks to support communities of practice to pool resources and expertise around particular heritage areas. The networks will open up heritage topics to a wider range of people.

We have also funded 17 projects that will create hundreds of digital volunteering roles across the sector. The opportunities will be both online and in person, supporting volunteers to contribute – and develop – their digital skills. Heritage organisations will gain the perspectives and skills of people who may not have had the chance to volunteer before.

One of the organisations funded through our digital volunteering grants – Vocal Eyes – has produced Heritage Access 2022, a report on the accessibility of UK museum and heritage websites. The accompanying benchmark tool aims to help organisations identify best practice across different regions and encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing. 

DASH survey results

Explore the results from our second Digital Attitudes and Skills for Heritage (DASH) survey. This survey and report help us to understand and respond to the needs of the sector. 

Our digital guides

We have produced free digital guides to help heritage organisations get started in key digital areas:

• Artificial Intelligence: a digital heritage leadership briefing
• Creating digital resources: GDPR, copyright and using open licences
• Digitisation project planner, handbook and examples
• Doing digitisation on a budget: a guide to low-cost digital projects
• Getting started with online learning
• Making online content accessible to all
• Online security and privacy
• Working with children and young people online
• Working with open licences

Discover more digital resources, useful information, great digital projects and initiative updates below: