Positive balance for Siena Children's Art Museum: record number of visitors in 2023

Record attendance at the Children’s Art Museum of Siena: in the first four months of 2023, the museum recorded an increase in visitors even compared to the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, from January to April 2023, the number of admissions was 2,974 visitors from different parts of Italy, with a total of 150 educational and didactic activities. In the same period in 2019, 2572 admissions had been recorded.

Determining the success of the Children’s Art Museum is the diversified cultural offer, with a total of fifteen proposals for schools and families divided into various age groups. In fact, the growing figures mainly concern projects aimed at the fragile public and secondary schools (middle and high schools).

“The educational offer of the Children’s Art Museum stems from the need to cultivate a direct and open dialogue with the school world. The main objective is to make students the real protagonists of the museum experience, stimulating their cognitive and experiential curiosity through the proposal of targeted content and dedicated workshop activities,” commented Michela Eremita, head at the Santa Maria della Scala Museum of Art for Children. “The didactic and educational offerings have been divided into thematic areas (Children’s Art Museum Collection, Santa Maria della Scala, National Archaeological Museum, Piccolomini-Spannocchi Collection and some of the Temporary Exhibitions) that correspond to the museum environments with their specific artistic offerings.”

The Museum was founded in Siena in 1998 and immediately established itself in the city with a rich cultural offering of artistic events and related educational activities dedicated to the world of children. Since 2007 it has moved to Santa Maria della Scala, acquiring a new location, a space dedicated to its Collection in the San Leopoldo Hall and filling the function of Educational Services within the Museum Complex. “Children and families are dedicated to themed activities that allow them to discover different aspects of the museum complex,” Eremita explains. “The offer is designed to allow parents to experience the museum spaces together with their children with interactive tours, stimulating games and laboratory activities in which they can experiment with artistic techniques, giving free rein to the creative imagination of the little ones, and not only that, activities with the on-demand mode are also planned.”

Another particularly important aspect of the activity of the Children’s Art Museum is that dedicated to the care and planning of cultural offerings and paths entirely aimed at people in situations of disability and, more generally, at the fragile category. “For several years the educational services have been offering museum tours and workshop activities within Santa Maria della Scala, open to private individuals and local associations operating in the third sector and in the field of disability. The theme of accessibility plays an increasingly central and relevant role in museums, in its different declinations: not only that related to the physical-logistical sphere, such as architectural and sensory barriers, but also those related to economic and cognitive accessibility,” concluded Michela Eremita.

Children’s Art Museum activities are coordinated by Michela Eremita assisted by museum educators Davide Falletti, Maria Chiara Scopelliti, and Stefania Villani of Si.Ge.Ri.Co spa.

Admission to the museum is free for those under 11, Siena residents and the public with disabilities, while activities cost 5 euros for participants.

Photo by Ela Bialkowska / OKNO studio

Positive balance for Siena Children's Art Museum: record number of visitors in 2023

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