Slovenia is contributing to efforts to make museums and cultural facilities more accessible to all. Three organisations in the country—Zavod Škrateljc in Bevke, Abakkum, and Casa Tartini in Piran—are playing key roles in the TOMATO project, an initiative financed by the European Commission to ensure that cultural venues are accessible, particularly for children from physically, mentally, or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The project has led to the development of a kit and an app, enabling people to visit museums and cultural sites virtually.

The project has now entered the testing phase, which coincides with a social media outreach campaign in collaboration with two Slovenian influencers: Kam z mulcem and Družinski izleti. Testing is essential as it helps identify and correct any issues while continuously improving the project’s offerings. As part of this process, our partners are presenting the kit to children of various ages, allowing them to engage with the interactive games. This provides valuable feedback on how well the children understand the instructions and how quickly they learn.

The TOMATO project (The Original Museum Available To All) is funded by the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme and aims to enhance the accessibility of cultural and educational institutions, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. An international consortium of 13 partners and three associated partners from eight countries—Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Slovenia—are collaborating on its implementation.

The project is developing both a physical kit and an app to offer virtual museum experiences in an engaging and hands-on way. These tools are being designed with input from children, families, and social workers to ensure they meet the needs of diverse users. The primary goal is to create growth opportunities for all children while supporting cultural institutions in making their collections more accessible and affordable for all families.

Initially, the project will produce eight unique kits and one app, catering to eight different museums: Abakkum, Casa Tartini, and Škrateljc in Slovenia; Istrian de Dignan in Croatia; Sladovna in the Czech Republic; Frida and Fred in Austria; Museo d’Arte Orientale di Venezia and Esapolis in Italy. A total of 1,000 kits will be produced and distributed free of charge, thanks to funding from Creative Europe. The project is also seeking additional partners to further expand its reach to more museums and cultural institutions.

By ‘boxing up’ museums, TOMATO aims to make cultural experiences accessible to everyone. The thoughtfully designed kits will offer hands-on activities that ignite curiosity in both children and adults, while the 3D app will allow users to virtually explore the eight museums via smartphone or tablet.