Florence, city museums present free digital program for children and schools

Museums in Florence are closed as they are throughout Italy as a result of the new dpcm, but the closure does not prevent institutions from working. Thus, the city’s museums have decided to present their digital program of remote interactive proposals anyway. The project involves the museum of Palazzo Vecchio, Museo Stefano Bardini, Museo di Santa Maria Novella, Cappella Brancacci, Museo di Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Museo Novecento, MAD - Murate Art District, World Heritage historical center, is dedicated to schools and is defined together with the Ufficio Chiavi della Città of the City of Florence, with the support of GIOTTO - love brand of F.I.L.A. Fabbrica Italiana Lapis ed Affini, Mukki, Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, Unicoop Firenze and Tenderly - brand of Lucart Spa.

with extensive digital educational offerings, developed following a preliminary survey accomplished through the collaboration of school leaders and teachers. An online questionnaire was submitted to them, allowing them to shape a program adherent to their needs, trying to take into account the complicated contexts in which we find ourselves living in these times.

There are four areas into which the program is divided, and the proposals are different according to the level of education: The Museum Tells, for kindergarten and the first cycle of elementary school; Stories and Inventions, for the second cycle of elementary school; Inside the Work, for secondary school, and Focus, for secondary school. Younger children can be guided to discover the origins and secrets of the city and its places, thanks to stories inspired by works or details characteristic of Florentine museums, such as Per fare una città ci vuole un fiore, which takes its cue from the lilies that decorate the halls of Palazzo Vecchio for the story about the city’s symbolic flower.

Interactive proposals designed for primary and secondary school students will allow them to explore up close the works of art preserved in the city’s museums, in routes such as Following the Ride of the Magi or Wonders of the Renaissance, dedicated respectively to the famous cycle of frescoes created by Benozzo Gozzoli in Palazzo Medici Riccardi and the one that decorates the Brancacci Chapel, the work of Masaccio and Masolino da Panicale. Classes will be able to ideally walk through the historic center of Florence (a UNESCO-recognized World Heritage Site) reading the traces of time if they choose the routes titled Discovering Roman-Medieval-Medicean Florence, and they will also have the opportunity to dialogue with characters from the past such as the artist Giorgio Vasari or Duchess Eleonora di Toledo, who for the time of an hour will take a leap into the future, plunging into our own era.

Some of the courses offered at a distance, at the request of classes, can be conducted directly in the classroom. On-site activities include Outdoor, thanks to which works of art from the Museo Novecento land at school, complete with specialized transportation, to offer a unique up-close encounter with the artwork. The digital activities, which are open to all classes in the Florentine and national territory, can be enjoyed free of charge both at school, via LIM or video projection, as well as on the museum’s platform, and at home, via individual devices; they last fifty minutes and take place in direct dialogue with MUS.E. Mediators. Places are limited, so it is mandatory to book by writing to didattica@muse.comune.fi.it or calling 055 2616788. Should you choose to use the museum’s platform, all technical directions for connection will be provided at the time of booking. In line with a principle of multidisciplinarity and the innovative CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) method, activities will possibly also be usable in foreign languages (English, French, Spanish, German), conducted by native speakers. This digital program is in addition to the in-presence activities, pathways and workshops that are currently suspended but remain available to classes when it is again possible.

“In a phase of serious and long health emergency,” says Letizia Perini, councilwoman of the Metropolitan City of Florence delegated to Culture, “we have to study and offer a diversified educational offer, using all the means at our disposal. Art comes to our aid, also becoming a vehicle of historical information to be assimilated in a new way. Culture is the immense resource we have to dispel fears and not give up learning.”

“Even within the limitations necessary to contain the pandemic,” say Councillor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi and Councillor for Education Sara Funaro, “the City of Florence does not retreat in its attention and closeness to the world of schools. Unable to carry out the visits and educational activities in presence in our museums, then it will be our educators and mediators who will reach the children through the Internet, revealing in their homes the wonders hidden in our city cultural spaces, waiting to welcome them live again.”

“In this difficult school year, which is continually challenged,” says Valentina Zucchi, head of cultural mediation at MUS.E., “MUS.E stands by the side of city administrations to offer its support to classes: a range of proposals for an imaginary escape that, while staying in the classroom, will allow students and teachers to stroll among the wonders of the city and treasure them for their own educational and training path. This is in the name of an ever-increasing integration between textbook and living matter, a direct source for multidisciplinary learning that involves not only history and art but also literature, foreign languages, civic education and more generally the forma mentis of every child or young person.”

Pictured: Palazzo Vecchio, the hall of the Lilies

Florence, city museums present free digital program for children and schools

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.