Mind the Gap! The Tyranny of Distance for Museum Engagement: UNEMA's Significance 2.0

The UNE Museum of Antiquities (UNEMA), located in rural northern New South Wales, is Australia’s first regional museum of antiquities. Established in 1959 as a Classics teaching collection, its holdings have expanded to include both classical antiquities and ethnographic material culture supporting the University of New England’s diverse educational, research, and community engagement programmes. The pioneering of distance education at the University of New England (UNE), Armidale, has always challenged UNEMA to consider the accessibility of its collections. With the University’s online/distance education cohort now exceeding 85 per cent of all enrolments, this challenge has never been more acute. To this challenge has been added a more concerted push by government to have universities demonstrate how they are contributing to the production of job-ready graduates. This chapter explores UNEMA’s journey towards the creation of accessible distance education museum projects using its ancient Mediterranean collections, with a particular focus on the implementation of Significance 2.0 capstone research projects supporting graduate skills. This chapter illustrates how the distance between individuals and collections in rural Australia and the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean can be overcome through creative digital solutions.