Data, culture, and sustainability combined:

The GreenGLAM stakeholder meeting highlighted innovative ways in which cultural institutions can showcase their sustainability impact.

The GreenGLAM Dashboard analyzes web data and media coverage to show how GLAM institutions (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) are linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The data is presented in interactive Data Sculptures visualized using augmented reality – height indicates SDG visibility, radius indicates relevance, color indicates thematic classification.

The goal is to create a tangible, visual representation of cultural sustainability impact, directly from real data.

A particular highlight of the meeting was the intensive exchange with the community. In addition to presenting technical aspects—such as entity recognition, sentiment analysis, and AI-generated summaries—the focus was primarily on practical and ethical issues.

Key points of discussion

  • How can smaller, less digitized institutions participate?
  • What does curatorial responsibility mean in “green” exhibitions?
  • How does data become relevant for families and everyday audiences?
  • Definition of real impact: awareness and dialogue instead of just reach
  • Co-curation: Actively involving users in cultural sustainability

 

The event made it clear that digital cultural tools are not just technologies—they create relationships, enable care, and challenge the imagination.

Outlook

GLAMs not only receive technical infrastructure, but also a tool for strategy development, public relations, and participation.

The Data Sculptures are not only visualizations, but discursive artifacts—for exhibitions, communication, educational work, and funding logic. In the future, training formats and interfaces will be developed to reach more GLAMs—including through co-creation and public prototyping.

As part of our GreenGLAM Stakeholder Forum, we not only presented the dashboard and data sculptures, but also gathered numerous ideas from expert discussions with museums, libraries, and research institutions.