About

The Digital Creativity Lab is an innovative educational programme for middle school and high school students (ages 11-19) and educators across Europe. It empowers participants to explore and reinterpret Europe’s rich digital cultural heritage using digital skills and creative design practices.

Building on the vast cultural heritage collections made available through Europeana.eu, the Lab introduces students and teachers to advanced search strategies, digital literacy, and creative reuse of online cultural content. Through in-depth mentorship sessions and hands-on capacity-building activities, participants will gain practical experience in design thinking, UX/UI principles and digital prototyping/concepting to imagine and build engaging digital experiences.

The programme culminates with a creative challenge that invites participants to apply their new skills by designing a digital product that reuses cultural heritage in an innovative way. Centred around the question,‘"How can we use digital cultural heritage and design thinking to tell a story, solve a problem, or share knowledge in a creative and engaging way?’, students are encouraged to explore topics that matter to them and their communities. Final projects might include virtual exhibitions, interactive maps, digital guided tours, educational apps, storytelling websites or game interfaces.

By the end of the programme, participants develop essential digital and creative skills while engaging with European cultural heritage and its value in shaping our shared present and future.

The 2025 edition

On 7 May 2025, during the C.R.E.A Cultura Festival in Foligno, Europeana facilitated the Design Lab: Using Images for Impact workshop, which introduced potential participants to the power of visual storytelling. This session taught students and educators how to find and utilise public domain images from Europeana.eu. Participants created posters and social media templates using visual material from Europena.eu while reinforcing the importance of critical media literacy and ethical image reuse.

The call for applications for the Lab then opened to teachers in formal education (from primary to secondary and Vocational and Education training, VET) from European countries who have an interest in digital technologies for education; and to European cultural professionals working in museums, archives, libraries and any other cultural heritage institutions who worked with schools and students, and wanted to design a digital educational service or product.

Teams were selected from applicants, and the Lab tookl place online in May 2025. Europeana and coorganisers EGInA and the CRHACK LAB FOLIGNO 4D provided a team of experts who supported the teams to further develop their projects and pitch them during the final online event at the end of the week. The capacity building activities and mentoring sessions covered a broad range of topics depending on participants' needs, such as UI/UX design, prototype concepting, web design, graphic and visual design, design thinking, digital storytelling, social media management and XR integration.

The winning teams were invited to Social Hackathon Umbria, from 3 to 6 July in Spello, Italy.

Find out more

Information about further editions of the Digital Creativity Lab will be shared through our news! In the meantime, explore and use Europeana’s APIs or discover more opportunities to use digital cultural heritage in education.