From 7 November to 8 December 2026, the Museo Nazionale Romano, at the Palazzo Massimo location, hosts the exhibition “La grande trama. Il patrimonio culturale nell’era digitale”, an exhibition route that traces over sixty years of history of the relationship between technology and Italian cultural heritage.
Promoted and designed by the Direzione generale Digitalizzazione e comunicazione and the Istituto Centrale per la Digitalizzazione del Patrimonio Culturale – Digital Library of the Ministry of Culture, with the collaboration of the Museo Nazionale Romano, the exhibition retraces the most significant milestones of digital innovation applied to culture: from the first computing experiments of the 1960s up to Ecomic, the digital ecosystem for culture, which opens new perspectives for the knowledge, management and enhancement of heritage.
Through a route that interweaves experiences, tools and new modes of use, the exhibition illustrates how digital technologies can connect data and content coming from different archives and institutions, enriching them with new contexts and information. Digital heritage thus becomes a shared resource, capable of fostering research, supporting the work of cultural institutions and offering citizens and visitors new opportunities to access knowledge.
Particular attention is devoted to the results achieved thanks to the investments of the Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR). Among these, the 23 innovative digital products developed through Ecomic in collaboration with as many cultural institutes and four Raggruppamenti temporanei di imprese (RTI): accessible catalogues, gaming experiences, immersive narratives and tools dedicated to study and restoration bear witness to the possibilities offered by the meeting of cultural heritage and technological innovation.
The guiding thread of the exhibition is the Grafo della conoscenza, a network that connects information relating to works, people, places and events, crossing different areas of heritage: artistic, audiovisual, archival, library and archaeological. The relationships that emerge go beyond the boundaries of traditional catalogues and allow the discovery of new connections between cultural assets and testimonies.
It is precisely in this network of relationships that the meaning of the title La grande trama is revealed: every asset, every piece of information and every discovery constitutes a node of a broader system, in which stories intertwine and generate new possibilities of interpretation. The visitor is invited to explore these links and to build their own path of knowledge, ideally contributing to an increasingly articulated map of Italian cultural heritage.
Hosting the exhibition at Palazzo Massimo means welcoming an opportunity to reflect on the transformations under way in the world of culture and on the role of digital technologies in making heritage increasingly accessible, connected and usable.
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For updates and further information, follow the official channels of the Museo Nazionale Romano and of the Direzione generale Digitalizzazione e comunicazione of the Ministry of Culture.