Between 1999 and 2004, a work group of the city council of Barcelona and the University of Barcelona worked on the development of an Information System which allows citizens to access information regarding the public art heritage of the city. The objectives of the project were: to make a catalogue of the public art of Barcelona, improving the database used by the Urbanism department of the city; set in a context all the pieces of public art in Barcelona with descriptions written by critics, historians and lecturers; increase the knowledge that citizens have of their heritage; provide specialized tourists a tool to plan their routes in the city; improve the maintenance of the cultural heritage with the participation of the citizens, collecting their requests about the state of preservation of the pieces of art.

Description of target users and groups

Citizens of Barcelona, tourists, lecturers and students of Art and the City council administration.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The project was developed by a partnership of the City council of Barcelona, the Municipal Institute of Information technology and the University of Barcelona. Validation of the project was done by the University.

Technology solution

The technology requirements needed by the application were solved combining an Oracle database, 9.2.0.7.0 version, with an application server WebSphere® software platform. This platform works under J2EE and XML technologies and is developed by IBM®. Art Públic works under a 6th version WebSphere installed on an IBM AIX 5.3. operative system. Technology choice: Standards-based technology

Main results, benefits and impacts

A total of 1,190 pieces of art are currently included in the the public website. The main results achieved with this initiative are: - Extension of the knowledge of the history and characteristics of Barcelona. - Improvement of the maintenance of the heritage by means of the citizens’ participation. The webpage was welcomed enthusiastically by the citizens of Barcelona, and it is receiving around 110,000 visits per year. It is also a virtual museum - one of the most visited museums in Barcelona!

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The project won the ACCA Award in 2005. (Catalan Association of Art Critics). ACCA is a NGO. In 2007 the project was awarded with the "Ignasi de Lecea" Award for its contribution to the development of the information system of Barcelona's public art. The project has been shared with other European city councils. It has been proved that it is fully transferable. In fact, it has already been transferred, or is in process to be transferred, to Zaragoza (Spain) and Almada (Portugal).

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - The catalogue helps to improve the heritage maintenance and conservation management. Lesson 2 -The standardization of the information and the use of relational databases improves the manageability of the information and allows scalability. Lesson 3 -The use of standard based technology allows a strong feedback between users and the city council. Scope: Local (city or municipality)