Migrants in Museums in Florence, clarifications on the project

Regarding the project that, in Florence, will bring a group of migrants to tell other migrants (as well as Italians who wish to follow them) about the heritage of the city’s museums from their point of view, we asked thepress office of the Civic Museums of Florence for some clarification about the nature of the project and the specific role that the people involved will play. The press office explained to us that the meetings that the migrants will hold in the museums are an activity that is fully part of the training project that will lead them to become mediators, and that for this training project (hours of learning will be added to the hours of practice in the museums: each person will hold four meetings) they will receive a reimbursement of expenses.

"The regional project,“ the press office tells us, ”provides the participants (thirty young people) with a total reimbursement for the training work and participation in the meetings that is part of the training project. The reimbursement of expenses is about 500 euros per person. We would like to point out that the protagonists of the project are the people who have undergone training and then simultaneously become cultural mediators with their compatriots. It is not a job placement, it is a training project." As for the background and cultural background of the participants, the press office continues, the migrants come from different countries and therefore "there are very different stories: they range from the person who came to Italy as a child and has lived here with his family and has been living here for many years to those who instead arrived a few years ago, if not a few months ago."

Regarding fluency in Italian, “they range from very good to rather poor levels, but still able to have a conversation with others. But they will speak in their own language (e.g., Romanian will speak in Romanian to compatriots). They have enough Italian to understand the trainings and to converse, but during visits they will speak in their own language. These are languages that are not usually available to tourists.”

On their knowledge of heritage, the press office explains, "there are those who have gone to schools in Italy and therefore have basic knowledge, but there are also those who have recently arrived and have no specific training, The course has served to understand what that is behind our works, to understand the value of culture, history, what is behind a work, and each of the participants, followed by the expert mediators, may be able to get the message across, rather than the story of the works."

In fact,the goal of the project is not to explain art, but to convey what art communicates to those who come from a culture different from ours. The migrants, however, will not be alone: “in fact, they will be joined,” the press office explains, "by referents in cultural mediation from all the museums involved who have been following them."

Migrants in Museums in Florence, clarifications on the project

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