Museum and the Web Florence 2014 - Museum Natural History of Florence on social media

Alba ScarpelliniHead of communication & social media strategy

Museum Natural History – University of Florence

Museum Natural History of the University of Florence:Communication strategies on social media

MWF2014: Museums and the Web Florence / February 18-21

Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine was established the Imperial and Royal

Museum of Physics and Natural History in 1775

Alba Scarpellini - MWF2014: Museums and the Web Florence / February 18-21


…and it was one of the first scientific museums to be opened to the public… a very social museum

In the museum it was displayed the entire world of nature

Visitors proceed from the Earth (mineralogy) to the Sky (astronomy), passing through botany…


… zoology and

antropology…


…the botanical and anatomical wax models.

It was at once a site of collections and also a place for research and for teaching.



The unity of nature referred to the unity of knowledge.

It was an extraordinary success :from 1784 to 1785 the Museum was visited by 7106 people …about 2000 were females and the 84% total visitors belonged to the “common people”.


Today the great heritage of artistic and natural specimens (that are about

8 million) are distributed in some historical buildings in different areas of Florence. MNH is a complex system to communicate…

Fortunately, new technologies are a big help to the museum communication


Since 2009, Museum Educational Department started to use web 2.0 technology

Projects with Regione Toscana

It ‘s a 3-D, multiplayer, online educational game. This game allows players/learners to design, build, manage, and develop a botanical garden, recovering green space surrounded by a western city.

The Garden of Wonder

It’s 2-D, online, multiplayer game . Immersed in ancient times, classes playing this game get in touch with the world of fossils.

Explorers of Time

Educational website & multimedia games


Project with :PORTALE RAGAZZI.IT Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze

Erbario game

Skeleton game

Giglio & Fiorenza GamesSimple, online, flash-games

allows pupils to play toghter, and reflect, on the theme chosen by the teachers

A video, "A museum to understand the nature", introduces the children to the knowledge of the “museum’s world”

Educational video & multimedia games


Young children have fun mixing the elements that constitute a human face: the overall shape, the eyes, mouth, nose, and hair.

The game, currently used in the classroom from three years, is really a useful tool for a project on human biodiversity.

Just an example…


Students get a “hands-on”, understanding how diversity is appearance because of all the different possibilities in combining features; no two people can ever look alike.

Perhaps Bitstrips copied us

In 2008, with the exhibition Virtual Renaissance – art in Second Life and in Virtual Words, the MNH was the first university museum in the Europe to have an avatar on Second Life


In 2012 with the exhibition Dinosaurs in the Flesh: science and art bring the rulers of a lost world back to life

The museum gained a special mention from ICOM because it had been able to engage users of all ages with social networks


…and in 2013 with the event #invasionidigitali co-creation of cultural value, a lot of people flooded the Museum allowing to create a strong effect of engagement with the social community

The MNH is a welcoming museum, you can take pictures and videos and you are invited to share


The communication on social media is successful, because the

posts are capable of creating a dialogue

between users and the

museum and among the

users themselves


February 2014


The museum analyzes the impact of communication on social media. There are many useful tools to make the statistics…

Social media are userfriendly, but you need to use skillsto make a good museum communication


Unfortunately, in Italy, there are few museums that have professionals with specific responsibilities for media communication and marketing.For this reason it’s important to invest in training and give a proper professional qualification to those already working in these areas


Work in progress

Website team


We need to involve more people in the activities of the museum.We want people to discover, learn, have fun, partecipate, think, grow, share ideas...

Credit for photos:Saulo Bambi, Giulia Bebi, Andrea Gori , Alberto Mori & al.

Thanks for your attention


Museum and the Web Florence 2014 - Museum Natural History of Florence on social media

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