Manchester Museum's MMinQuarantine Digital Campaign Led by Italian Chiara Ludolini

The Manchester Museum, the UK's largest university museum, launched the MMinQuarantine campaign in response to its COVID-19 closure. The project was spearheaded by Chiara Ludolini, an Italian digital engagement specialist who joined the museum in 2015 after working at the Museo Tattile Statale Omero in Ancona. The virtual reopening was initiated by director Esme Ward and marketing head Alia Ullah, who consolidated the museum's scattered online resources into a single mobile-optimized site. The platform offers virtual exhibitions, multilingual content including British Sign Language, podcasts, streaming events, and an 'Encyclopaedia of Wondrous Objects.' It also addresses decolonization, cultural repatriation, migration, identity, and climate change. The #MMinQuarantine social media campaign launched March 31, 2020, garnered over 200,000 views in 24 hours. Within three months, the site attracted over 20,000 visitors from 102 countries. The museum, which holds approximately 4.5 million objects, is planning a physical reopening in autumn 2020, coinciding with a £13.5 million gallery expansion. Ludolini emphasizes the importance of digital accessibility and plans to continue integrating digital resources post-pandemic.