Want to Write Stories and Poems Inspired by Art? Europeana.eu is Your Free Go-To Resource, with Beth Daley

Still Life by Nason, Pieter - 1675 - National Gallery of Denmark, Denmark - Public Domain.

Want to Write Stories and Poems Inspired by Art?  Europeana.eu is Your Free Go-To Resource

Europeana.eu is a vast database of European digital culture heritage that you can use for research or inspiration for your own writing practice, or to kickstart your writing workshops. You may have already explored it if you took part in The Ekphrastic Review’s prompt in February, using an artwork by Michael Schoenholtz. Here, Beth Daley introduces Europeana.eu and shares some creative writing prompts. 
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What is Europeana.eu?

Europeana.eu is a practical, accessible and free online resource, funded by the European Commission. It provides access to Europe's cultural heritage, digitised and online. Why? To inspire and inform fresh perspectives and open conversations about our history and culture. To share and enjoy our rich cultural heritage. To create new things.
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Screenshot of Europeana.eu home page, Europeana Foundation, 2024, CC BY-SA. Artwork: Road through a Wooded Landscape at Twilight, by Jacob van Ruisdael. Mauritshuis, public domain.

Europeana.eu gives you access to millions of items from cultural heritage institutions across Europe. Discover artworks, books, music, and videos on art, newspapers, archaeology, fashion, science, sport, and much more. 

How do you find great stuff on Europeana.eu?

The best thing to do is simply have a go. Go to Europeana.eu and take a look around. Enter something in the search. Click on the menus and see where they lead. Take some time to explore. 

Know what you want to look for? Use the search bar to look for something specific, and narrow the results with a wide range of filters - if you want to see only artworks, for example, select ‘Art’ from the ‘Theme’ filter, and ‘Image’ from the ‘Type of media’ filter. 

Top tip –  Every item you find on Europeana comes with information about what you can and can’t do with it (is it in copyright or is it available for you to use however you like?), as well as where it is from and who created it.  Use the ‘Can I use this?’ filter to see which items are available for you to use straight away without seeking further permissions.

Not sure what you’re looking for? Use the ‘Collections’ or ‘Stories’ pages to browse curated content. You’ll find collections put together in themes, or by century, as well as editorials such as blog posts and exhibitions on a range of topics. 

Top tip – search by tag to find stories on a topic you’re interested in, like Women’s History, World War I, or manuscripts.

If you want to do more, you can create a free account so that you can save items you like, and even create your own galleries.

How do writers use Europeana.eu?

At Europeana, we believe that cultural heritage is relevant to work in all sorts of fields, from education and academia, to tourism, media and creative industries. Writers have always used libraries as places for research, contemplation and community, and so Europeana.eu provides a complementary resource for writers now operating in increasingly digital ways. 

We’ve spoken to some writers who use Europeana.eu as a place for research and inspiration, and we have also run creative residencies in which we directly encourage writers to explore the collections and to create new writing as a result of their explorations. 

Here are a few examples:

Canadian maker and author Etienne Milette uses, modifies and is inspired by heritage material from Europeana.eu in his artistic work exploring fantasy and the paranormal. His book The Fractal Report is presented as a leaked document from the Office for Containment Control (OCC) – a user manual for new recruits of a fictional secretive organization, featuring photographs and reports of strange events, supernatural phenomenon and unexplained apparitions.

“When I found Europeana.eu, I felt like I’d discovered a whole new universe, I felt like a time traveller.”
​Etienne Milette

The Fractal Report by Etienne Milette, CC BY-SA.

The Murmuration of Words was a postal poetry project run by artist Bean Sawyer from South Wales, UK, which began in January 2023. A handwritten prompt – the first line or two of a poem – is sent out to multiple groups of poets. Each poet contributes the next stanza and posts the poem to the next person in their group until it is complete. Europeana curated a gallery of bird-related images from which one was selected as a prompt for a new round of poems. The resulting poems were published in an anthology and included in a physical exhibition.

Poems #53 and #54, Murmuration of Words, 2024, copyright of Bean Sawyer and the poets. Artwork: Naine lindudega by Veeber, Agathe, Art Museum of Estonia, Estonia, CC0.

Staying with poetry, bilingual poet Gabriel Rosenstock was inspired by artwork he found in Europeana from the Slovak National Gallery to write a series of tanka (Japanese for 'a little song') poems in Irish and English.

For the past four years, Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival has run Online Creative Residencies which encourage participants to create new interpretations or presentations of material found on Europeana.eu in a range of formats, one of which is new writing. In 2023, Tonya Atanakova created galleries of items she found inspiring, and used them to create characters and a story exploring LGBTQ+ cultures and communities. 

“Storytelling, for me personally, is a balance between inspiration and imagination. For this project, I have drawn inspiration from Europeana collections to create galleries that inspired the characters. Then I let them tell me their stories.” Tonya Atanokova 

Heather Storgaard found heritage material to augment her story about a set of postcards passed down through her family, documenting a young man’s journey across Europe in the 1920s. A postage stamp inspired Elena Volina’s story Little Bird, and archive photographs combined with family stories and personal memories to create Angelina Fors’ poetry and prose The call for home - Kuoksu, Sweden.

Sommarnatt i Lappland by Mesch, Borg - Nordic Museum Foundation, Sweden, CC-BY-NC-ND. Used in Angelina Fors’ poetry and prose The call for home - Kuoksu, Sweden.

Have a go!

Fancy having a go? Toboggan Man is one of the images we used at our Eurocon workshop. Your challenge - take a look at the image and then freewrite on whatever comes to mind. Who is this? Creature or costume? Friend or foe? 

Maskenfigur "Toboggan Mann" by Schulz, Lavinia, Museum of Arts and Crafts, Hamburg, Germany, CC0.

For a different vibe completely, take a look at this archive photograph. Pick out one person who speaks to you and freewrite on who they are, why they’re there, how they feel at that specific moment in time and space. 

Personeel van Verkade by Zuiden, Fotopersbureau Het, City Archives, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, CC BY-SA.

Top tip – To find great prompts, try the ever-changing section called ‘Explore today’s popular items’ on Europeana.eu’s Collections page. At the time of writing, I see the Statue of Liberty, Queen Elizabeth II, a 19th century Estonian cabin, and a tableau of poses of Finnish dancer Sara Jankelow.

How can you follow Europeana?

There are a number of ways you can keep up with and keep in touch with Europeana… 

We are on all the usual social media platforms - find the links in the footer on any Europeana.eu page.

We run a range of events on all sorts of topics – check out what’s coming up soon on our events page! 

You can even follow courses on storytelling with cultural heritage on the Europeana Academy training platform. These can be taken as online self-paced courses or you can join an instructor-led session. 

And of course, you can explore Europeana.eu and sign up for our monthly newsletter, and register for our next Digital Storytelling Festival (19/20 May 2026).

If you’d like us to present Europeana.eu or run a creative writing workshop with your colleagues, students or writing group, just get in touch!

​Email [email protected].

Beth Daley

Dr Beth Daley is a novelist, cultural and creative writer and Europeana's Editorial Adviser. She works on engaging a broad range of audiences in Europeana’s work and content. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, runs a range of writing workshops and her first novel,  Blood and Water is published by Hic Dragones in Manchester. A self-confessed story addict, Beth has led various initiatives in digital storytelling with Europeana, including acting as new writing mentor in Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival Online Creative Residency.