Reinterpreting heritage to serve the community. Lessons learnt from museum practices in Italy

For many years museums counted on a self-selected public but nowadays they have the means and the knowledge to try to involve all the different publics and segments of different communities. In many instances they increased their efforts of fostering the sense of belonging and identity of communities which have been swamped by COVID-19 emergency. On these grounds we analyzed some best practices of museums engaged in serving communities in Italy during the pandemic and propose some guidelines and “lessons learnt” on how museums might develop programs aimed at increasing access, social capital and trust in local territories.