Cornwall Museums Partnership wAVE Community Project Overview

We caught up with Cornwall Museums Partnership Innovation Manager, Amy Shakespeare, to talk about their wAVE Community Project and its augmented virtual experiences.

Cornwall Museums Partnership is a charity that exists to create positive social change with museums.

wAVE Project is an £800K investment from the Coastal Communities Fund in immersive technology in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Working with Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership and Falmouth University, the project aims to use Cornwall’s distinctive heritage to support digital innovation and economic diversification in five coastal communities by maximising Cornwall’s digital infrastructure, skills, and heritage for the benefit of the local economy. The county’s distinct history coupled with its growing immersive-tech sector, presents a unique opportunity to position Cornwall at the forefront of the transformative potential of such technology.

wAVE follows three strands:

Digital Revival – Innovative technologies developed with Falmouth University’s research experts – such as VR headsets, CGI, beacons, and more – allow visitors to explore heritage sites, see artefacts in their original settings and meet historical figures in new immersive visitor experiences.

Human-Centred Design – Working with staff, volunteers, and communities to ensure that the experiences meet the needs of their future users.

Impact and Legacy – wAVE raises the profile of Cornwall’s unique culture and heritage offer. Local communities are involved in a programme of digital training to allow wider tourism businesses to harness the opportunity presented by immersive technology. This allows local people to add value to their businesses through future-proofing their offer by differentiating their product, becoming more visible and accessing new virtual experiences to entice new visitors.