Dancing Museums is a partnership project bringing together five European dance organisations and eight internationally-renowned museums to explore new ways of interacting with audiences. Project partners include the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, an ASEMUS member. The project is co-funded by the European Union's Creative Europe programme.

From June 2015 to March 2017, five selected dance artists, one from each organisation, are embarking upon a two-year period of research and development and take part in a week-long residency in each of the museums, providing regular opportunities to collaborate with their European partners as the project progresses. As part of the residency they are also joined by experts from other fields such as education, digital media and academia to contextualise the research and stimulate new thinking.

The aim of Dancing Museums is to define and implement new methods to engage audiences and enhance the journeys which people make when walking through the rooms of historical artefacts and art spaces. Drawing the public’s attention to contemporary dance as an inclusive, communicative form, events are being produced such as choreographic guided tours, participatory workshops and a web platform where the protagonists are both the artists and the public. The events  place the audience at the centre of the experience, blurring the boundaries between spectator and maker. Creative ways of using digital technologies also extend the reach of the project.

Promoting professional development for both staff and artists, Dancing Museums creates a space for practitioners to develop their work in dialogue with other art forms and share skills across multiple organisations, audiences, work practices and local contexts. Throughout the project, research will be made available to the public through a series of presentations and thematic seminars.

Videos of activities carried out in Rotterdam and in Borgo Valsusagna, Italy, are now available at http://dancingmuseums.com/artefacts.html

For additional information about Dancing Museums, please visit http://dancingmuseums.com/