Cultural Tourism: using Google Arts & Culture platform to promote a small city in the North of Portugal

Abstract

Santo Tirso is a small town with a total of 15 thousand inhabitants, located in the district of Porto, Portugal, and sits along the shores of the River Ave. It is a stunning old city that is home to a number of interesting attractions and religious landmarks. At the heart of the city is the monastery of São Bento. Next to the monastery lies the Santo Tirso International Museum of Contemporary Art (MIEC). In 2017, the Centre for Intercultural Studies (https://www.iscap.pt/cei/) worked in collaboration with the Santo Tirso International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture (http://miec.cm-stirso.pt/en/) to put together a research project undertaken by teachers and students, which included the creation of a virtual exhibition that contemplated some of the exceptional pieces of the museum’s collection. Designing a virtual exhibition of MIEC’s collection for the Google Arts & Culture platform will provide additional visibility to Santo Tirso, turning the town from a “place for passing through” to a place to visit. The specific target audience of Google Arts & Culture will certainly feel encouraged to get to know more and have first-hand experience of the artworks on display. The fact that Santo Tirso is not yet a tourist attraction in itself provides the possibility of assessing the impact of the project in terms of growth in the number of visitors and in the visibility of MIEC, as the venue is still a relatively new feature in the contemporary art scene, which is yet to develop its potential.