Uma proposta educativa para a Casa - Museu Medeiros e Almeida

The purpose of this thesis was to create an educational product: an application for the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida in Lisbon. This product provides general information as well as a virtual tour of twenty-four selected pieces from the collection. The research found that the main problems that this institution faces, and which are common to others, are its limited financial resources and also a failure to hit the target of the expected number of visitors that its leaders aspire to, despite its advanced cultural policy and the quality of the collection. To solve these problems we chose to work on two main themes: the theme of marketing in the field of arts and the theme of new technology. When considering marketing within the art world, it was found that one of the main concerns of the institutions (which is often ignored) should be communicating and trying to appeal to the public, by adapting to its needs. Hence, the suggestion was to unite several areas: art history, museology, art education and communication (which is not always considered part of these themes). The institution could possibly be more aware and possess a deeper understanding of marketing, and the publicising of their works of art could be done more appropriately, so as to encourage more favourable results. With regard to the impact of new technology, it was found that it has led institutions such as the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida to rethink its concepts concerning the public, space, collection and mission, and has driven them to create other concepts, as was the case with the virtual public or the digital collection. In short, this thesis describes the development of an application designed for all types of users, as an extension of an audio guide, which aims to make the visitor’s experience more interactive while viewing the collection