Heritage in everyone’s hands

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Tiếng Việt

Heritage in everyone’s hands

Empowering GLAM is an international project which aims to preserve cultural heritage and promote sustainability through innovative 3-D modeling techniques.

It began with a flicker of fear in a museum staffer's eyes. Technology loomed like an iron gate, unyielding, impossible to cross and a barrier to cultural preservation. Mr. Ondris Pui, Associate Lecturer of Design Studies, and the team at Amuzeo, a non-profit platform dedicated to advancing cultural heritage digitisation, changed that perception and helped the museum throw open what had once appeared to be an impassable gate by showing the team how technology could work for them.

Moments like these reflect the essence of “Empowering GLAM”, a continuing initiative led by RMIT Vietnam in partnership with the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, APSARA Authority Cambodia, Museum Pasifika Bali and the Indonesian Heritage Agency. Through innovative 3D modelling techniques, the project aims to safeguard cultural heritage and promote sustainability, acting as a driver of cultural sustainability by introducing new technologies that build skills and confidence across the sector.

15 June 2026

A group of people sitting and standing around a round table with laptops, smiling and posing cheerfully in a warmly-lit meeting room.

Cultural heritage and accessibility

In order to make heritage available to everyone, Mr. Pui and his team decided on the three pillars of accessibility of the Empowering GLAM initiative.

Tool accessibility

For Empowering GLAM, it was decided that the initiative should use tools that are easily available, such as smartphones. These could be used as a preservation studio, and enable museum staff to easily digitise their prized pieces without the use of intimidating technology.

Cost accessibility

To overcome the stereotype that high quality preservation demands a price tag beyond reach, the initiative found and customised free software.

Experience accessibility lets artifacts step out of their glass cases and wander into the digital world. No longer confined to a single city or locked in a single museum, they live in the digital pockets of countless individuals. A villager in the mountains, a traveler halfway across the world, all can carry fragments of culture with them, anytime, anywhere.

This commitment to accessibility has enabled the project to travel across countries in Southeast Asia. Among its proudest milestones is the Betel and Areca Nut Collection at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, where 3D technology cloths a new digital garment in the once-faded ritual. The old soul of betel chewing now wears fresh colors, closer to all. 

Authors: Nguyen Khanh Linh, Nguyen Vu Phuong Linh, Nguyen Bao Nhi, Le Minh Anh

Heritage in everyone’s hands