The Great Museum Tour

The final visit tour to the participating museums took place on December 8-12, 2014. The partners travelled over 1500 km through the Russian and Finnish Karelia following the route from Petrozavodsk to Sortavala, Joensuu, Parppeinvaara, Hattuvaara, Kostomuksha, Medvezhyegorsk and back to Petrozavodsk. Each visited museum presented their local results of the project’s implementation.

The most significant output of the project is the Open Karelia information system. Each museum placed QR codes in its exhibition that lead to the system. They received tablet computers and touch screen information kiosks for the visitors to access the Open Karelia system. The North Karelian Museum (Joensuu) created the Virtual Sortavala website that introduces the life of Sortavala in the 20th century and fetches information from the Open Karelia system. The National Museum of the Republic of Karelia developed an audio guide for the visually impaired visitors based on the Open Karelia system and created quest games for children and families. These games can be used by other museums as well. All these achievements were tested by the final tour participants.

Another important achievement of the project is the upgrade of exhibitions in participating museums. During the final tour three new exhibitions were presented: The Sortavala Stone Keys in the Sortavala museum, The Chronograph of the Kostomuksha Birthplace in the Kostomuksha museum, and The Zaonezhsky Junction in the Medvezhyegorsk museum. An indoor and outdoor exhibition in the Fighter’s House (Hattuvaara, Finland) was also upgraded with new exhibition sections, audio guidance, information stands, etc.

On December 9, 2014 a seminar on further cooperation between partners in the post-project period was held in Joensuu. On December 12, 2014 the tour was completed with a final press conference in Petrozavodsk with participation of the representatives from other projects, local media and authorities.