Re-Inventing the Museum and its Narratives The Experience of Palazzo Grimani During Lockdowns

Abstract

The essay analyses the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns during the pandemic on the practices of museum storytelling in the context of social networks, particularly in relation to the Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice, Italy. The spring 2020 lockdown constituted a totally new situation for museums, whose forced closure caused the fundamental daily relationship with visitors to fail in an unexpected and all-encompassing way. At this juncture, social media have provided the space for an effective rethinking and reconstruction of the Museum’s narratives, starting from their inherent potential and the need to interpret the external need, though not to substitute a real on-site visit. This paper is based on a practical and direct experience, thus trying to benchmark the specific case study of Palazzo Grimani and inserting it into the wider academic literature that developed out of the challenges fostered by the pandemic.