Artefacts Canada Modernisation

The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) is at the beginning of an ambitious, multi-year project to modernize the national portal for museum collections, Artefacts Canada. The primary goal of this project is to better support the digital capacity of museums across the country by helping them create, prepare and share data about their collections. Core elements of the project include: (1) simplifying the data contribution process, (2) enhancing the accessibility and discoverability of museum collections online (both humanities and natural sciences) in Canada, and (3) offering a more intuitive and engaging interface for public users.

This site will serve as the point of reference for the project as we work to develop the core components of the new portal. We will also use this GitHub site to share tools, data, research, and technical reports that we’ve worked on along the way, as well as other work we’ve done in the past that helps inform the direction of this project.

Partners and Collaborators

During the fiscal year of 2025-2026 CHIN collaborated with a handful of heritage institutions to experiment with the use of artificial intelligence (e.g., descriptive metadata generation and reconciliation to vocabularies) and test open-source collections portal solutions. These institutions include:

  • Ingenium
  • The Canadian Museum of Nature
  • The Museum Data Service (operated by Collections Trust)
  • The Association of Nova Scotia Museums (ANSM)

While we will continue to work with these collaborators, we are currently prioritizing collaborations with the following groups:

  • Provincial and Territorial Museum Associations
  • An advisroy committee of heritage professionals from across the country
  • Institutions currently contributing to Artefacts Canada

Get in touch

If your institution is interested in collaborating with us on this project, please get in touch : rcip-chin@pch.gc.ca

You can also send us your thoughts (interests, concerns, etc.) about the project, seperate from any institutional affiliation : [https://forms-formulaires.alpha.canada.ca/en/id/cmsotr8nf00iv01xdebkmr9z4]

Last updated: 2026-09-28