Breaking down the barriers between the museum and the surrounding area: this is the aim of the Capodimonte Art Lab project, a museum education program featuring workshops at the Museum and Royal Wood of Capodimonte—a treasure trove of art and the city's green lung—which will host the project starting Wednesday, January 17th.
In approximately 2 years of activity, 500 children from primary schools will be involved, as well as hundreds of families and teachers, guiding the little ones in interacting with the artistic and naturalistic heritage of the site and creating an initiative to support parenting.
The project was brought to life by 8 excellent cultural entities in the area: En Kai Pan, Amici di Capodimonte, Le Nuvole, in collaboration with the associations Archipicchia! Architettura per bambini, Axoloti and the Mio nonno è Michelangelo bookshop, in partnership with the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte and the 21st Circolo Didattico Mameli Zuppetta. The project is funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU- PNRR M5C3 – Investment 1.3 – Structured socio-educational interventions to combat educational poverty in Southern Italy in support of the Third Sector; created with the patronage of the Municipality of Naples-Municipality 3 Stella San Carlo all'Arena.
The partners of Capodimonte Art Lab – all with many years of experience in cultural activities for children between 5 and 10 years old –, in over a year of planning activities, have created a rich program, combining different artistic languages, useful for developing fundamental skills for the young citizens of the present and the future. The first appointments will involve the young students of the 21st Circolo Didattico Mameli Zuppetta, who will participate in creative writing and reading workshops, audiovisual, urban regeneration, ecology and sustainability, as well as dramatized teaching activities and paths that move between art history and botany, created at the Museum and the Woods, specifically designed for the little ones.
"Capodimonte Art Lab is part of a broader project that the Museum has been developing for years, which involves openness and collaboration with individuals and organizations that practice social and civic responsibility, " the partners explain. " We will work to raise awareness among children—as well as teachers and families — through activities held both during school hours and after school, promoting the value of the artistic and environmental resources closest to them. Ample space will be given to creative expression, a fundamental tool for growth, self-affirmation and community development."
Inspiring the children's path towards a future of civil responsibility will be a central figure of the twentieth century, Italo Calvino, an author who in his works - from Invisible Cities to Cosmicomics - created a true poetics of "sustainability": the young citizens will develop imagination, love of discovery and wonder for the world, to contribute to raising the quality of life of their territory, learning to know it thoroughly, admiring it and preserving it.
Starting from the needs of the present, Capodimonte Art Lab wants to open a path towards the future, connecting the museum site with the daily life of families, developing the comparison between teachers and consolidating the creative exchange between School and Museum, to create, acting on young citizens, a long-term social impact on a complex and stratified Territory.
Starting from the needs of the present, Capodimonte Art Lab wants to open a path towards the future: by acting on the youngest citizens it contributes to connecting the museum site with the daily life of families, developing the comparison between teachers and consolidating a creative exchange of long-term social impact between Museum, School, Territory.
