In 2021-2022, the Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy, through AICODS, supported Mus-e workshops in seven Italian cities: Turin, Copertino, Fermo, Rome, Milan, Bologna and Verona.
The proceeds of the gala dinner of the 2022 General Chapter to be held in Geneva on 8 October will be donated to the association, which is active in Italy to give culture and love to the children most at risk of educational deprivation
Mus-e workshops supported by AICODS have come to an end for the year 2021/2022.
Among the highlights of this school year was the garden lesson, not always open to parents, but nevertheless a breath of fresh air! The open lesson is always a joy: outdoors and involving guests (when possible) the children danced, acted and drew, creating a real moment to celebrate, after so much waiting
Covid had a great influence on everyone’s perception, especially that of children, and the Rome-based artists tried to make this new way of being together special by keeping their distance, concentrating on a collective work whose protagonists were animals and in particular the butterfly, a symbol of freedom and peace. In the body exercises, at the beginning of the course, the children were incredulous and a little uncertain, after two years of distancing, they did not really know how much they could express themselves and let their bodies move in space. The main objective was therefore to regain the confidence of being together without judgement, and secondly to create a joint project in the perspective of cooperative learning.
To explore the theme of personality and identity, the Mus-e children in Fermo staged Don Quixote. To do this, the artists guided the children throughout the year in order to collaborate fruitfully to achieve a collective artistic result. The result was an exploration of all facets of an artistic production (from costumes to script, acting and props). One of the objectives was to show them how all the elements eventually fit together into the final product. The children also created the set design with recycled material.
Also in Bologna too the children created many stories by using ceramics and creating characters that were then animated and staged. Each pupil became the author and actor of their own theatre. The workshop titled “Between graphics and clay manipulation” openly discussed with the children the importance of the Planet, its respect and its preservation.
The Mus-e class from Copertino (in the province of Lecce) also worked on creating stories, practising improvisation, movement and creative writing. The story the children wrote featured a real orchestra that came from Japan to Venice for a fantastic concert at the La Fenice theatre. Friendliness, comedy and creativity emerged significantly when the children faced the “problem” of understanding the Japanese language… but the universal language of music made understanding, acceptance and integration easier.
In Verona, the workshop titled “Wonderful nature: surfaces, sounds, colours, aromas in dialogue” helped the children discover the infinite expressive and sensory potential of natural elements. They improved their ability to talk about themselves and listen to others especially by interacting with the nature around them, by learning to respect and care for it.
In Milan, the children concluded their journey through art amid visual arts, creative writing and theatre. The journey consisted in personally interpreting and reinterpreting some paintings to which they associated emotions and feelings; the artists gave very little information, just the name of the author of a work, in order to favour observation, the ability to formulate hypotheses on technical, expressive and even philosophical aspects.
By listening and prompting questions, boys and girls came to understand for themselves the innovativeness of works such as Lucio Fontana’s “Spatial Concept”, John Baldessari’s technique, the materials used by Carol Rama, and Emilio Isgrò’s caviardage. Precisely because Mus-e is about inclusion, it is nice to remember how, in a difficult time, art is unity: in April, Lev, a Ukrainian child, arrived in class IV B in Milan together with his mother and little brother. Teacher Antonietta used Google Translator to talk to him and immediately included him in the Mus-e workshops. Classmates were wonderful with Lev and immediately involved and pampered him. This is understandably not enough to wipe away this child’s suffering, but it shows the importance of the school class as a community and of the welcoming atmosphere created by the teacher.
In Turin, thanks to the work on the self-produced video by class 4 A of the Aurora school, “la mole molleggia” (the Mole Antonelliana dances), the children worked on the theme of recognising their own cultural roots and getting to know the roots of Italy, precisely to counter the closure and isolation to which certain areas of the city, such as Aurora, are now exposed. By creating the cartoon, the children reflected on the theme of inclusion and the richness of diversity, which makes the world a more lively and welcoming place.
All Mus-e workshops, thanks to the support of the Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy, through AICODS, made many children protagonists, allowing them to add a little extra building block in their personal growth and sensitivity towards art. Above all, this served to establish the conditions of social harmony that are useful for improving their relationship with themselves and with others.
The Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy will also continue to support Mus-e by donating the proceeds of the charity gala dinner to be held in Geneva on 8 October 2022 during the General Chapter.
