Data card - Museums for Equality
Data Card - Museums for equality: diversity and inclusion
On May 18 is celebrated the International Museum Day 2020. This year the International Council of Museums (ICOM) dedicates it to the theme "Museums for equality: diversity and inclusion". An even more significant day for Italy, where museums and monuments will be able to reopen to the public whether the safety protocols established by the authorities for flattening down the Covid-19 emergency have been adopted.
On this occasion, OpenCoesione publishes a Data Card to underline the role of cohesion policies in supporting culture and cultural sites, and in particular of museums, with a focus on a small but representative selection of places where cohesion policies have financed various types of interventions favouring accessibility and inclusion: the Royal Palace of Carditello in the Caserta area in Campania, the Verrucole Castle in the internal area of the Garfagnana in Tuscany, and several UNESCO sites in the Adriatic area.
The theme of the 2020 edition of the International Museum Day underlines the social role of cultural organizations and sites in general, their potential of triggering the change and ensuring an increasingly wider use, favoring thus entire communities' participation in culture.
A reflection that raises strategic questions about the function and mission of museums for the community: what can museum institutions actually do to promote inclusion, overcome stereotypes, contrast phenomena of marginalization? What are the outreach initiatives to be developed to reach audiences who are unable to participate in the cultural life of the community, as well as to develop pluralist and democratic values, by the means of shared and representative narratives? What can these places of culture do to spread awareness and sensitivity among citizens, policy makers and local actors on the relevance of these aspects for the life and well-being of communities?
Cohesion policies and museums
During 2019, as part of the OpenCoesione initiative, an pilot activity was promoted involving a team of students attendees of the last year of the master's degree program in Data Science of the University of Rome "La Sapienza", who developed and applied data mining techniques and textual resarches on the administrative data of the projects financed by the cohesion policies published on the OpenCoesione portal (updated at 30 June 2019) and on the data of the museums, archaeological areas, and both state and non-state owned monumental complexes subject to the annual survey of the Istat (annuity 2017). From the data analysis carried out by NUVAP and OpenCoesione, published among the contents of the chapter dedicated to the cohesion policies of “XXIII Report of Italian Tourism”, emerged that out of 6.5 billion euros of total investments in the cultural sector, about 85% relate to "works and reconstructions" - interventions aimed at restoration, recovery and valorization of the cultural heritage. Over one billion euros have been invested to finance 713 projects associated with 443 museums, distributed in 346 Municipalities, 56% of which are located in the South regions of Italy. In fact, southern regions have seen the mayor number of projects (69%), amount of funding (67%) and number of museums involved (57% of the total).
Although to a much lesser extent than infrastructural interventions, cohesion policies have financed, especially in the current programming period, procuring the public services for cultural sites and institutions and to support businesses and non-profit associations operating in the cultural sector. Staying in the southern regions of Italy, in 2014-2020 "CulturaCrea" was born, the first national aid scheme specifically dedicated to this sector, within the framework of the National Operational Programme ERDF 2014-2020 "Culture and Development" managed by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and for tourism (MIBACT), with a total Programme budget of over 100 million euros for financing projects in the cultural and creative sectors (subsidized rate loans for startups and SMEs) and non-repayable incentives (for social enterprises , third sector organizations and bodies) in Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia, Sicily.
Royal Palace of Carditello
Our journey starts from Royal Estate of Carditello (also known as the Reggia di Carditello) and its surrounding grounds in San Tammaro, a small village in the province of Caserta in the region Campania: here have been invested 20 milion of Euros from cohesion policies, from which 10 millions are downloadable from OpenCoesione, that have financed the physical recovery of the monumental complex and the surrounding open areas, and the launching of a series of initiatives for the use of spaces inspired by the principles of cultural democracy, inclusion and social innovation.
This 18th-century royal residence located in the middle of Campania Felix once belonged to the Neapolitan Bourbon Monarchy and was built at the behest of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon in 1787, in an area already identified in the mid-eighteenth century by Charles of Borbone. While the estate functioned as an agricultural and pastoral production center, and included large amounts of royal territory, the palace delighted members of the court as a hunting lodge. Many years of disuse started since 1920 led to much degradation, specially of its frescoed interior. In 2004 arrived at last the ministerial "bond" - initially limited to the monumental building only, then expanded to the surrounding landscape area - the rapid process of recovery and enhancement of the area began, thanks to the passion of civic movements and the commitment of the Italian Ministry for cultural heritage and activities for tourism, which acquired the place in 2013.
Starting from these premises, the Carditello Foundation was estabished in 2016, where members are MIBACT, the Campania Region and the Municipality of San Tammaro, with aim at promoting knowledge, protection, recovery and enhancement of the site.
The safeguard and enhancement activities were supported by cohesion policies and have concerned restoration and consolidation of architectural artefacts, while in recent years - also by the means of the Cultura Crea support - have been financed the activities supporting the accessibility and innovative use of entire cultural site.
"Carditello has an important history, and not only from the point of view of the monumental complex: this asset has a special meaning in relation to the place where it is located, and which has determined its evolution" underlines Roberto Formato, director of the Real Sito Foundation from Carditello. “We are in the Land of fires, in an area that ten years ago was a landfill during the period of the waste crisis in Campania: around the property there are many confiscated lands, and in that great emergency there was in action a sort of apocalypse of Carditello ".
The actual site is in fact surrounded by waste, vandalized and looted. An important and highly symbolic front of the redemption phase that Carditello is experiencing thanks to the Foundation's activities involves the environmental dimension: “We have just completed the reclamation of an asbestos deposit, 30 meters from the main entrance, removing 700 tons of contaminated soil "says Formato.
After the acquisition of the monumental complex by MIBACT, a first project for the systemic works of the site, financed with 3 million euros of cohesion policies 2007-2013, made possible a limited use of the area, making the central building visitable. At School of OpenCohesion this project in the 2017-18 edition was monitored by the "Renaissance Team" of the institute "E. FERMI ”of Aversa (here the monitoring report).
This process - Format says - was made possible also by the strong involvement of volunteers, many of those who over the years had mobilized to underline the bad conditions of the abandoned property. In 2016, the Foundation signed an agreement with the Il Cardo cooperative, which brought together the volunteers' activities, to ensure a guided tour service.
After this starting phase, today Carditello is going through a second phase which still sees an important commitment of cohesion policies, that guarantee the necessary funds to ensure the restoration of the first of the two Ts that distinguish the plan of the complex. The site development strategy, prepared with the strategic plan by the Foundation, looks carefully at relations with the territory, at the participation of the local community not only in the cultural context, but also in the environmental, civic activism, and social inclusioncontexts.
The strategic vision is based on two main functional areas: the productive area, with the breeding of Persano horses, a breed created precisely in the royal stables - to which a series of activities are linked, ranging from horse shows to hippo therapeutic rehabilitation practices, the pilot action of dairy production restart (Carditello is the first direct manufacture of buffalo mozzarella) and the possibility of tasting on site which represents area of tourist-cultural use of the complex and the important natural heritage.
, in which leisure and outdoor activities are also possible, is constantly evolving and is based on a very distinct and specific offer. Thanks to a recent project (February 2020) financed by cohesion policies with 1.25 million Euro of budget, financed by the NOP "Culture and development" ERDF 2014/2020, "Virtual Carditello, Carditello Plays, Carditello in the network”, it is planned to virtually recreate the interior settings with the support of technology able to reproduce frescoes and paintings (projections and backlit prints), as well as accompanying the visit experience of small children in edutainment.
In order to achieve this goal, the Foundation has signed agreements with different organizations of the local territory: with the Environmental Protection Unit of the Carabinieri operating in the area up to Castel Volturno (CE); with the ASL of Caserta, for
the management of horses and animal-assisted activities, and an agreement with the former SPRAR of Santa Maria Capua Vetere to welcome refugees (one refugee is currently employed for the care of the 45 horses of the stable, and the start of hippotherapy);
with the Campania Region for the cleaning and maintenance of the forests, through the availability free of charge of agro-forestry workers during the months in which ordinary activities are not carried out; with prisons for activities in which prisoners are involved - thus stresses Formato "symbolically Carditello from a place controlled by organized crime becomes a space where to go to redeem". Carditello is also a place where civic action and activism is cultivated: here, since 2019, the student parliamentarian of the Diocese of Aversa has gathered, with 100 nationalities of children represented.
Verrucole Castle
Let's move now to the inland areas of the country, away from the great attractors and large tourist circuits, where the attractiveness and identity value of the places are based on the combination of widespread cultural heritage, environmental and natural resources, and intangible heritage. Cohesion policy has reached about 50 museums located in 36 of the 72 internal areas defined in the framework of the National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI), as evidenced by the analysis by Nuvap and OpenCoesione in a dedicated chapter of the "XXIII Report on Italian tourism".
Verrucole Castle is located in the Municipality of San Romano (LU). Built by the Gherardinghi family, it was constructed around the 11th-12th century to dominate the area they ruled over and to oppose the Bacciano family in their claim over San Romano. The second half of the 15th century the interventions that have made the Fort as we see today. designed by the architect Marc'Antonio Pasi, sent to Garfagnana in the second half of the 16th century by Duke Alfonso I d'Este (in 1429 a part of the Garfagnana had passed under the rule of the Este family of Ferrara ). Between 1522 and 1525 it was the poet Ludovico Ariosto, commissioner of the Garfagnana, to reorganize the military garrisons, including Verrucole.
In the mid-eighteenth century the Castel lost its original strategic-military function and between the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, under French domination, it was put on auction, but was sold to private property only in 1866. In 1986 the Municipality of San Romano in Garfagnana acquired the Castle, starting the conservative and restoration interventions, which ended in 2012, thanks to two interventions financed for approximately 1.5 million euros in the 2007-2013 programming period. The first - carried out between June 2009 and November 2010, from the ERDF Tuscany Regional Operational Program - and the second - carried out in 2011, from the PAR FSC Toscana programme.
"In the reconstruction works we followed the documents of the original project, the one signed by Pasi, which are kept in Modena" explains Pier Romano Mariani mayor of San Romano in Garfagnana from 2004 to 2019. The Verrucole Castle now hosts an archeopark - the reconstruction of life inside the Fortress in the form of a living museum, as it was when inhabited in the past "with historical principles and not for tourist use and consumption" underlines Mariani "that is recognized by the reviews also on Instagram and TripAdvisor.”
The integral management of the property is entrusted to an association of social promotion, the Mansio Hospitalis Lucensi Association, which pays a concession fee to the Municipality. "We have been managing the fortress since 2013, a year after the end of the restoration works," says Diego Micheli of the Mansio Hospitalis Lucensi Association. "Since we created the archeopark project - he adds - we have seen an increase in the total attendance": if in 2012 there were 5 thousand users, in the year 2019 there were a total of 15,200 visitors, triple. One third is represented by the school institutes (middle and high-schools in particular). “The positive feedback - continues Micheli - is linked to the educational project and to our innovative way of transferring the historical culture of the place. The combination of usability, innovation and restoration projects led to success and the repercussions on the territory were evident ".
And the shop in the village of Verrucole, a fraction of just 30 inhabitants at the foot of the Fortress, has been reopened "becoming a restaurant run by a local cooperative" says the former mayor Mariani.
Unesco Site Experience For All (USEFALL)
This project with a overall budget of more than 1 milion Euro, financed by the European Territorial Cooperation Program Interreg Italy-Croatia, promotes the inclusion and accessibility of people with special needs to the UNESCO sites by the means of use of new technologies and smart devices, and raising awareness among cultural and tourist operators
It's called Unesco Site Experience For All (acronym USEFALL) and involves a series of Italian and Croatian places and monuments belonging to Unesco sites, such as the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna, the Botanical Garden of Padua, the Museum of Art eastern in Venice, the archaeological area and the patriarchal basilica of Aquileia, the Euphrasian basilica of Porec, the Diocletian's palace in Split.
The solutions adopted by the partners - which are the local public bodies and administrations of the project sites - have been manifold: structural works have been carried out to encourage accessibility and removing architectonic barriers, methodologies and techniques have been used to provide new technological solutions (which we will see later) ; guidelines have been drawn up which remain a valuable tool for future collaborations; the tourism entrepreneurs has been involved.
In addition an App dedicated to the Unesco sites with simplified texts to help people with cognitive disabilities (available with written and audible contents). The app has a short text and a long text for each monument and has been optimized to facilitate accessibility for the visually impaired: The App “Usefall - Ravenna per tutti”.
The museum Classis Ravenna, close to the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, has been provid
Click here for the infographics