Art history in school and the masters of journalism

Over the past few days, our Facebook walls have been almost clogged with hundreds of comments from users concerned about the fate of art history in Italian schools: all stemming, probably, from an article posted on February 5 on the website Bloggokin with the alarming title Abolished art history in Italy. Subsequently, a myriad of blogs relayed the news, and the fear that art history had indeed disappeared from all curricula spread throughout the network. On the opposite side of the “barricade” (so to speak), we have instead seen publications such as Artribune branding, in a very simplistic way, the news spread by blogs as hoaxes. But, in short, what really happened?

The only mistake of the aforementioned blog was to use a headline that was very easy to take (assuming we want to consider it a mistake: it may also have been a move designed on purpose to attract shares and comments, but it is certainly not our intention to investigate and this is not the point). It would have been enough to read the post with a modicum of critical sense to discover that in fact the only two inaccuracies were a date and the name of an amendment. Here are the key points of the post:

• “In fact, let us recall that from the years 2009 and 2010, in addition to the abolition of the Istituti darte, the Gelmini reform imposed the reduction of art subjects in the ”new“ Licei Artistici, the cancellation of ”History of Art“ from the two-year courses of the Licei Classici and Linguistici, from the Tourism and Graphics courses of the Istituti Tecnici and the Professional Institutes; zero hours for surveyors; deletion of ”Drawing and Art History“ from the two-year curricula of the Humanities and Linguistic High Schools; deletion of ”Drawing and Art History“ from the ”new“ Sports High School; elimination of ”Drawing“ in the three-year curricula of the latter ”educational areas“” (all true, as also well explained on the website of the Artemdocere Association);
• “In the last two years there have been numerous attempts to revive the discipline and all the lost knowledge. Incessant appeals between 2012 and 2013 did not help, including a resounding collection of 15 thousand signatures supported by the Minister of Cultural Heritage Massimo Bray himself” (also true, just Google it to find dozens of news stories about it, for example this one);
• On October 31, 2013, the amendment “C 1574-A” presented by Celeste Costantino, a member of Sel, for the “Reinstatement of Art History in Secondary School” had finally arrived in the Cultural Science and Education Committee of the Chamber. The yes seemed a foregone conclusion but in the end the amendment “did not find a hearing” (also all true, except for the fact that in reality C 1574-A is not the title of the amendment - which is instead 5.208 - but the initials of the House act of the Bill “Conversion into law of Decree-Law No. 104 of September 12, 2013, containing urgent measures on education, universities and research.” And the other inaccuracy concerns the date: we are talking about October 30, not 31)
• Rejected [the amendment] because, says the motivation of the majority of the Commission, reintroducing the matter “would mean increasing an expenditure that has been cut because the country is unable to sustain it” (this quotation mark was taken from a statement by the Artemdocere association dated Oct. 31, which in turn quoted it as the motivation of the Culture Commission, although we have not been able to find the original source. It is true, however, that Mr. Costantino’s intervention in the assembly on October 31 went unheeded, and that on October 30, in the Budget Committee session, he proposed that the Commission express an opinion against several amendments - including Celeste Costantino’s 5.208 - “insofar as they are likely to determine new or greater burdens for public finance without appropriate quantification and coverage.” So in essence the meaning of what was written in the post that is the subject of so much discussion does not change at all).

Also along the same lines is the other blog whose post has been widely shared in recent days, namely Il Mediano: “The Culture, Science and Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies says no to the reinstatement of art subjects in Italian schools,” and again “Gelmini, in fact, has cancelled art institutes, eliminated art subjects from the two-year classical and linguistic high schools, reduced the subjects in art high schools and cancelled History of Art from professional institutes.” Again, all true news even though, unfortunately, we already knew it.

This is it-no more, no less. Bloggokin has, with all evidence, taken up an article that appeared in the January issue of the Art Newspaper, signed by Tina Lepri, which contained a reflection on the same topics, then on a late October-early November news. But from here to talking about hoaxes the distance is really long, and the operation carried out by Artribune, Leonardo.it and many other newspapers and blogs, is in essence the same as the one carried out by Bloggokin, although in the opposite way, and although, perhaps, much more dangerous. Because branding what is in fact a non-news story (but only because it was not strictly topical, since it was reporting events of late October) simply as a hoax risks conveying the message that art history is in no danger when in fact we all know very well that, although not (yet) completely abolished, it is actually doing very badly.

But there is also more. The same Artribune newspaper (as well as others) attempted to reinforce its position by citing the statements of Simona Malpezzi, a member of the Culture Commission on the strength of the PD, who on February 6 published a press release on its website on the subject. But here are Simona Malpezzi’s statements, "I remain perplexed in the face of the news that has appeared in some press organs regarding the definitive cancellation of art history from schools, wanted, again according to certain press, by the culture commission of the Chamber, which would have rejected Minister Carrozza’s proposal to reinstate it. Art history has not been permanently cancelled, but it is true that the Budget Committee has voted against the amendments by Celeste Costantino of SEL (5.208) and, for the record, also by Maria Marzana of the 5 Star Movement (5.214, which called, like 5.208, for an increase in art history hours at school). One can easily verify this on the website of the Chamber of Deputies. And again, “I recall that art history was cancelled by Minister Gelmini with her now famous, for the disastrous effects produced on the school system, pseudo-reform.” That is, Malpezzi retorts to what she says is a “huge hoax” with the same “hoax”! Art history has never been completely erased from our schools, but only (so to speak) drastically reduced as mentioned in Bloggokin’s post. And finally, Simona Malpezzi concludes thus, “I do not know what sources this news is based on, but it would have been enough, for example, to consult the reports of the work of the committee to discover, instead, that the Democratic Party has proposed, while avoiding disorganized requests for hourly increases for different disciplines, the monitoring of the entire Gelmini reform, including hourly frameworks, and a reorganization of the competition classes that would allow to put a hand to the horrors carried out by the Tremonti-Gelmini duo.”... well, what does all this have to do with what has been blogged about?

There is nothing more to add, except the fact that in Italy we do not feel the need for masters of journalism who too lightly attribute the category of hoax to what are indeed non-news, but which in any case do not tell falsehoods: it is enough to read them without allowing oneself to be misled by emphatic headlines (used, moreover, even by those same ones who are lavishing corrective interventions) and, if anything, to delve deeper. Especially if then the way to counter it is not to cite true sources (always an intelligent and welcome operation), but is to quote party press releases! However, from the hoopla of these days there has been a sense, if nothing else, of the need to bring to everyone’s attention an issue on which public opinion needs to be constantly updated (public opinion that has shown, moreover, to be sensitive to the issue), albeit without alarmism and emphatic tones, because we will all agree that the battle to restore the proper weight of art history in school is a matter of civilization and we must all strive to do our part. That is what is really needed.

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.