ENM Digital Creativity Contest 2026
Digitisation of cultural heritage is progressing rapidly, yet public awareness of how digital heritage can be used remains uneven. The Estonian National Museum’s (ENM) digital creativity contest aims to bring heritage databases closer to people and encourage more confident, hands‑on use of these resources. Now in its second year, the competition marks the tenth anniversary of the museum’s new building and carries the theme “Roots Reimagined”.
Participants are invited to explore Estonia’s digital heritage repositories, select materials that resonate with them, and reinterpret these in a new creative form. Submissions may take the shape of collages, videos, comics, memes, poems, reaction videos or any other format that reworks heritage material in an inventive way. Entries will be evaluated by a jury, with particular attention to originality and the thoughtful use of digital heritage.
“Digital cultural heritage belongs to all of us, and this shared resource has significant creative potential,” notes Mart Alaru. Last year’s competition received 160 highly diverse works — from a hybrid of the Karu‑Aabits and Forselius primers, to a Kalevipoeg story‑bot, a web installation depicting Estonian books as a DNA double helix, and a historical documentary. “Such unexpected interpretations are exactly what we hope to see in the context of cultural heritage.”
The idea for the competition grew out of the research project “Digital Cultural Heritage as a Societal Resource”. According to Alaru, it is important both to recognise digital heritage as a usable resource and to better understand the interests and needs of its users, which is why the competition also provides valuable insights for researchers.
The digital creativity competition “Roots Reimagined” is open for submissions until 4 October 2026.
The competition page can be found here.
The gallery of works from 2025 is available here.
Digital Creativity Contest 2025