First steps in the dissemination of my research project: Fondazione PInAC’s conference, March 16th 2024
The report was written by Alessia Trivigno, one of the participants of the conference.
My name is Alessia Trivigno, I am a PhD student in Intangible Heritage in Socio-Cultural Innovation at the University of Milan-Bicocca. Actually, I am doing a 6-months research period at the Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark where I was an Erasmus+ student back in the Winter term of the a.y. 2018/2019. My doctoral research focuses on children’s drawing and the heritagization of childhood cultures. It is carried out in cooperation with a children’s drawing museum in Italy located in Rezzato, close to Brescia: Fondazione PInAC – Pinacoteca Internazionale dell’Età Evolutiva Aldo Cibaldi.
On Saturday 16th of March 2024 I had the pleasure to present part of my research to the event “Piccoli passi tra arte e lettura, dalla scuola alla città” (transl.: “Small steps between art and reading, from the school to the city”) at Rezzato municipal theatre. This event closed a Cariplo granted project coordinated by Fondazione PInAC that involved some nurseries, daycare centers and kindergarten of the territory in the enhancement of expressive languages in toddlers and children.
Photo by Sara Baricelli
The title of my contribution was “Taking care of the drawings’ house of the children of the world: the meaning of the Fondazione PInAC today”. Through my speech I brought some insights on the international drawing collection stored in the archive of this special museum.
Photo by Sara Baricelli
In fact, this archiveis not only a selection of the drawings that are closest to the adult idea of beauty, nor a collection of the finest “works of art”, but a record of how childhood expressiveness can manifest itself in similar or deeply different cultural contexts. Children’s creativity, characterized in its early stages of development by certain universal traits, later presents peculiar characteristics that depend on childhood life within society. In my presentation I questioned what role adults assume in an institution that preserves and promotes the cultural heritage produced by children in diverse historical times and places around the world.
Thus, the purpose my contribution was to encourage reflections on the meaning and delicacy of the process of collecting and cataloguing drawings with the aim of raising adults’ awareness in respecting children’s drawings, considered to be a typical cultural expression in childhood of every place and time.
Photo by Sara Baricelli
The event was attended by experts in the field, teachers and local citizens who were interested in these topics. In the afternoon, the museum hosted some creative workshops addressed to children and their families.
Photo by Sara Baricelli
If you are interested in getting more information about the children’s drawings museum or taking a look at the collection you can visit the website https://www.pinac.it/en and follow the social pages.
Also, a workshop on these topics will be part of the programme of the International Week from May 21st to May 24th at the Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark.