Annapaula Freire de Oliveira
Former Community Editor , Europeana Foundation
Deal with tour operator sees Art Stories FACES used in holiday villages this summer
Developing educational apps that introduce children to the delights of art, history and architecture has been the mission of Italian startup Art Stories from the get-go. The team has carried out various projects to bring their mission into reality: from winning the first Europeana Challenge of 2016 to partnering with the tourism group Alpitour.
Art Stories was selected as one of the 2016 Europeana Challenge winners for their Art Stories FACES project. A digital game for school-age children, Art Stories FACES is the first test for an Art Stories virtual museum. In a kind of digital playground, kids are encouraged to learn the basics of visual art. So far, the game has had about 5,000 downloads and was a featured app on the Apple store in multiple countries and categories.
‘Our apps, including FACES, serve as introduction to a great variety of themes: they provide content and inspiration for addressing kids about wider themes (such as art, or traveling the world)’, according to Art Stories co-founder, Federica Pascotto.
To encourage children to discover digital cultural heritage through play, the startup continues to increase their reach through partnerships. They signed an agreement with the Italian tour operator Alpitour to use their educational apps, including Art FACES, in a number of holiday villages, such as Cala Verde in Ibiza; Agua Verde in Menorca; Coralejo in Fuerteventura; Princess Lindos in Rhodes; Agua Marina in Menorca. Some 4,000 children are expected to be playing with the apps throughout summer 2017.
The villages have specialized areas for kids, where Art Stories’ digital games will be used as a bone structure for workshops and hands-on activities. ‘Alpitour embraced our philosophy, where digital screens and traditional play go together for providing larger and deeper experiences to kids’, informs Pascotto.
In the following weeks, we’ll hear from Art Stories about their latest venture, a new web-app dedicated to teachers: Bartolomeo. Stay tuned!
Would you like to teach your children about art through cultural heritage? Download the digital game! Art Stories FACES is free and available both for iOS and Android.