Florence Academy Gallery: the museum and its works told to children in ten videos. With creative workshops

Starting on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, the new digital education project of the Accademia Gallery in Florence will kick off: OPEN ART. The brainchild of Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia Gallery, and created by Federica Chezzi, professor of “Didactics for the Museum” at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, the project consists of a series of ten videos, which will be posted online on the museum’s website on a fortnightly basis. The animated videos will allow young children to learn about the museum’s art and works.

Opened by a stop-motion animated theme song, after an initial narrative part exploring a work belonging to the museum’s collection, the videos offer a tutorial for a creative workshop, to be carried out at home or in the classroom, designed to engage young viewers. OPEN ART is in fact dedicated to children ages six and up, as well as their teachers and parents, and is aimed at not only a national but also an international audience since the videos, lasting about 8 minutes, are also produced in the full English version.

“All the creative workshops produced for this new educational project,” explains Cecilie Hollberg, “are designed according to the work chosen, taking into account the artist and his or her stylistic characteristics. They are narrated by an actor or actress in a simple and to the point language, accompanied by sounds, music and with original graphics that aim to capture the attention of the youngest children and transport them inside the works, with extraordinary visions of details that we would never be able to see with the naked eye.”

OPEN ART is within everyone’s reach: the workshops are easy to set up, always keep in mind the availability of materials and simplicity of execution, aim to set in motion a creative practice that leaves no one behind, regardless of prior ability, and to nurture the pleasure of new discovery.

On the recommendation of Director Hollberg, a number of works were selected with the aim of offering an even chronological overview of art, from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, that would not be repeated in subject or technique and would be of interest to an audience of children.

The first focus will be on the Master of the Magdalene and his most important painting, from which he derives his name, St. Mary Magdalene and Eight Stories of Her Life: tempera and gold on panel, datable to 1280-1285. After describing some interesting facts about the life of the saint, the narrator introduces the work and its author, before moving on to the creative workshop that will require the creation of a precious gold background, just like that of the Master of Magdalene.

The next two videos will be dedicated to Giotto and Giovanni di Ser Giovanni, known as lo Scheggia, and in particular his famous Cassone Adimari.

For info: www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.it/accademia-online

Pictured is a detail of the work St. Mary Magdalene and eight stories from her life.

Florence Academy Gallery: the museum and its works told to children in ten videos. With creative workshops

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