Will Italy have a Polytechnic of the Arts? Minister Franceschini supports the idea

IsItaly on its way to having a Polytechnic of the Arts? The idea of bringing together under this new banner the Milan Civic Schools, or the higher education school run by the Milan Foundation, which, on behalf of the City Council, manages the four Civic Schools (that of Interpreters and Translators, that of Music, that of Theater and that of Cinema), was launched by the Foundation’s president, Stefano Mirti, according to whom the Polytechnic of the Arts would be “the loom on which our Civic Schools are woven.”

He said this yesterday during the inauguration of the 2021/22 Academic Year of the Milan Foundation of Civic Schools and the four Civic Schools of Language, Music, Theater and Cinema, named after Altiero Spinelli, Claudio Abbado, Paolo Grassi and Luchino Visconti, respectively. Also present at the inauguration was Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, who declared his openness to the idea: “We have been reasoning for some time,” he said, “about a form of direct presence of the Ministry in the Civic Schools. And the idea of the Polytechnic of the Arts is also formidable. And we will have to concretize it here as well with a form of permanent participation and support from the state. This is my commitment: we still have one more year of the legislature to concretize it.”

“The pandemic,” the minister added, “has made even the uninitiated understand what a country without culture is, it has brought people closer to new cultural needs. It is no coincidence that in Italy (after so many negative years and against the trend in Europe) book sales and the number of readers has increased. Same thing also for cinema where the intersection of Italian attractiveness, a new tax credit law and many available resources are making productions multiply. This is why I am increasingly convinced that after the end of the pandemic (which has been such a strong watershed in individual and collective experiences that it will not be able to close as a parenthesis but will leave positive and negative traces) among the positive ones we have to expect a growth in cultural consumption of Italians, and training people in these areas becomes a fundamental investment for the country, because culture will be a driving force in the coming years.”

What form would the eventual new Polytechnic of the Arts take? The Civic Schools, which are private, currently grant degrees that are equivalent to a bachelor’s degree. It would therefore be an institute of higher education, similar to the technical, scientific and engineering polytechnics, but dedicated to higher arts education, with faculties that would focus on the humanities and the arts. And just as scientific polytechnics stand alongside universities, similarly, the Polytechnic of the Arts would go to constitute an alternative educational offering to that of the Academies of Fine Arts, probably going to the ranks of higher artistic, musical and choreographic education under the aegis of the Ministry of Universities and Research, with the Ministry of Culture guaranteeing some form of support. And a blessing also came from University Minister Cristina Messa, who said she supported “the innovative idea of the Polytechnic of the Arts because it is based on the concept of interdisciplinarity, which we will all have to pursue, and for the innovative design given to teaching.”

Pictured: Villa Simonetta in Milan, home of the Civica Scuola di Musica. Photo by Carlo Dall’Orto

Will Italy have a Polytechnic of the Arts? Minister Franceschini supports the idea

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