The audio guides to Joensuu Museums have been published!

On the birthday of Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck, officially recognised as the Day of Finnish Visual Art, 10.7., the audio guides of the Joensuu Museums were published and opened for all visitors to use.

 

The year 2021 has been remarkably better in terms of the development of the global coronavirus pandemic in North Karelia with the increasing vaccine coverage. The adverse ways in which the pandemic impacts museum visitation and leisure tendencies have been reduced in comparison, although more time is needed to reach pre-pandemic figures. International travel to Finland, however, remains very restricted. The audio guides, which have been made in cooperation with many different talented individuals, organisations and companies, were published simultaneously to all three museums: The Joensuu Art Museum, the North Karelian museum and the Joensuu Bunker Museum. As the audio guides are published, it is a good occasion to thank the voice actors, dramaturg, audio technician, musicians, external experts and

others who contributed to the audio guide production process.

 

The audio guides utilise the mobile platform ”Seinätön Museo” (Museum without Walls) and allow museum visitors to experience the museums and what they have to offer in Finnish, English, Russian or Mandarin Chinese. QR-codes and posters found in the museums, as well as instructions in the mobile service itself, give more instructions to visitors on how to access and utilise the audio guided tours.

 

The audio guides are used as a service to further improve tourist facilities and linguistic accessibility to museums in North Karelia, and to improve the region’s readiness to accommodate linguistic and cultural diversity in its cultural tourism sector. The audio guides were produced in the KA9021 project Museums in Focus: Development of Cultural Services for Chinese tourists, within the Karelia CBC Programme (funded by the European union, Finland and Russia).