The young students of the IC Casalinuovo of Catanzaro were the protagonists of the educational laboratory curated by the Academy of Fine Arts of the regional capital, in collaboration with the Municipality: international art and the history of the city merged in a morning of activities in the Archive Historic Municipal Building “Emilia Zinzi”, housed in the San Giovanni monumental complex, in the heart of the historic city centre.
The day, the first of a series of educational initiatives organized by the Academy which will continue in the coming weeks, is included in the list of activities for the promotion, valorisation and diffusion of culture, art and history linked to the projects with which the municipal administration of Catanzaro, beneficiary of specific regional funding, has carried out some digitization and care interventions on the book and archival heritage, as well as the structures of the “Emilia Zinzi” Municipal Historical Archive and “Filippo De Nobili” Municipal Library which host them.
The children were welcomed by the director of the Academy, Virgilio Piccariby the teachers Amelia Lasaponaracoordinator of the Department of Art Teaching, Francesca Giordano And Wendalina Lidonnici and by the students Natascia Mellace, Claudia Covelli and Maria Vittoria Talottawho organized for them a series of activities dedicated to Keith Haring, his works and the cultural movement he inspired. For the Municipality of Catanzaro, the councilors are present Nunzio Belcaro (Education) e Donatella Monteverdi (Culture), while for AreaCultura, the company that manages the archive service, the archivist Sarah Procopio.
The workshop was a triumph of colours, fun and enthusiasm: «The project – explained Lasaponara – is to bring children closer to the world of art. We thus have the great task and pleasure of disseminating information in the area: doing it starting from children allows us to learn from them the gift of spontaneity, which unfortunately over time, we adults, lose. The idea is to bring children closer to art through their language, that of play. Today we deliberately used “poor” material, we used manual skills, without ever mentioning the use of technology, digital and what came out of it was a fantastic morning of sharing, knowledge and experimentation. Digital, obviously, must not be demonized, but must be thought of simply as a tool.”
For Piccari «it was a truly exciting moment, I saw very interested and curious children. After all, we know well the great cathartic force of the language of art. This is just the beginning because we believe in the value of art education through which to restore a feeling of affection towards culture and our city.”
The project involves city schools. It is no coincidence, however, that it started with the involvement of one of the suburban institutes: «We believe – added the director – it is important to be able to bring art, beauty and culture to children in extraordinary places such as the San Giovanni Complex. who to some extent experience an involuntary marginality that distances them from these values, from the territory, from knowledge of the places in the territory itself. Our effort therefore wants to go in this direction, embracing as many schools as possible, whether they are more or less nearby, to ensure that the service and welfare policies that are an integral part of the training mission can find concrete application”.