Partners
• Leading partners: “Arteco” Cultural Association, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Turin
• Other partners: City of Turin, DG Social Policies and Relations with Health Agencies, Disabled Unit; University of Turin, Department of Philosophy and Sciences of Education.
Funding bodies
The project was funded within the framework of the “Creative Generation” grant programme, promoted by the banking foundation Compagnia di San Paolo, and co-financed by the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Goals
• to create a new familiarity between project participants and the Museum’s ethnographic and Art Brut collections, thereby promoting an in-depth experience of access and participation in cultural heritage
• to promote reflective, critical and creative thinking on the issues of cultural diversity and of the historical/cultural relativism of categories such as identity/difference, normal/deviant behaviour, centre/margin, inclusion/exclusion…
• to adopt art languages and techniques with a view to creating a sense of ownership of the Museum’s heritage as well as a new awareness of the cultural and social issues it involves, by reinterpreting them through a shared process of empowerment and cultural representation
• to provide participants with the tools, both conceptual and technical, for a participatory planning of the artworks, the travelling exhibition and the project’s catalogue
• to encourage a reflection on the social role of art and on the potential of relational art as a vehicle of social critique and integration.
Target groups
• of the training course (Interdisciplinary Workshop) and creative process (production of artworks): young Italians and migrants aged under 35 – emerging artists, outsider artists, educators
• of the final exhibition and the related activities of art mediation and education: the local community.
Duration of the project
From January to December 2012.
Project description
Building on the expertise developed in the framework of the pilot project “Tongue to Tongue: a collaborative exhibition”, carried out by the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Turin as part of the European project “MAP for ID – Museums as Places for Intercultural Dialogue”, while at the same time responding to the key criteria of the call for proposals “Creative Generation”, launched by Compagnia di San Paolo, “The art of making difference” was organised in the following phases:
• preparatory planning: survey of the local context, analysis of project partners’ needs (the Museum, Arteco Association and the City of Turin – DG Social Policies, Disabled Unit), selection of participants and analysis of their needs
• training: interdisciplinary workshop aimed at the collaborative conception of artworks through the formation of working groups called “triads”, composed by a young artist, an outsider artist, an educator-in-training and, where required, an experienced educator from the Disabled Unit of the City of Turin
• production: shared creation of the artworks, mounting of the exhibition and production of the participatory catalogue
• formative and summative evaluation, self-evaluation
• public presentation of the project’s outputs and outcomes.
A detailed description of the project and its outcomes may be found in “The art of making difference” collaborative catalogue (English translation included).
Publications / other resources
See above.
Contact details
Anna Maria Pecci, project coordinator
annamaria.pecci@alice.it
Project description published in: October 2013
