Studying at the Museum/Studying the Museum

Friday 28 March 2025, from 9.30am, saw the fifth edition of Studiare al Museo/Studiare il Museo, the online Study Day organised every spring by AMACI – Associazione dei Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiani, with the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.

Studiare al Museo/Studiare il Museo, curated by Elisabetta Barisoni, Head of the Museums Area at the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and in charge of Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art and the Fortuny Museum, and Emma Zanella, Director of MA*GA, offered an important opportunity to reflect on the profound changes affecting contemporary art museums, their mission and their operational methods in today’s context.

The museum is a place of complexity: it collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits cultural heritage, both material and immaterial, while also playing a crucial role in research and training through ongoing dialogue with universities, academies, AFAM institutions (higher education institutes for art, music and dance), artists, and researchers.

Within these networks of relationships, the museum is itself an object of study — for the heritage it holds, for the outreach and educational projects that promote public engagement, and, not least, for the artistic practices that place the museum at the centre of their work. This state of affairs is also reflected in the position of artists, who increasingly present themselves as researchers on contemporary themes, heritage, education and relationships, going so far as to enter different areas of museum practice to reread and reframe them in unconventional and non-traditional ways.

Building on these premises, the fifth AMACI Study Day aims to encourage dialogue among experts in the field, with the goal of identifying good practices that recognise the educational role of museums and strengthen their synergies with the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Merit, universities, AFAM institutes and other institutions that see museums as strategic partners for education and advanced training.

The three planned sessions were introduced by a preliminary survey analysing the state of AMACI museums in relation to the proposed themes. The panels brought together professionals from AMACI museums, sector experts, institutional representatives from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Merit, as well as figures from the academic and artistic worlds.

Now in its fifth edition, the Study Day was preceded in 2024 by Il Tempo del Museo. Il museo d’arte contemporanea presidio di complessità, curated by AMACI’s Executive Board — a reflection on the dichotomy, whether real or apparent, that emerges in the vision of museums, conceived both as places for the development of thought, debate and discussion, and as places of entertainment. The third edition, in 2023, I Musei d’arte contemporanea e lo sviluppo sostenibile: una pratica necessaria, curated by Marcella Beccaria, was dedicated to the role of museums and cultural institutions in achieving more sustainable global development. The second edition, held in 2022, Cogli l’attimo, Carpe diem, Seize the Day, also curated by Marcella Beccaria, reflected on the art of performance and its presence in Italian museum collections and archives. Finally, the first edition, I Musei d’arte contemporanea e il diritto d’autore. Una prospettiva di collaborazione sull’esperienza del Progetto RAAM, curated by lawyer Andrea Pizzi in 2021, brought together for the first time, around a single table, those responsible for protecting creative works and the institutions that — for the purposes of study, research, and the dissemination and promotion of knowledge of our cultural heritage — require rights of use for them.

The Study Day was opened by Angelo Piero Cappello, Director-General for Contemporary Creativity at the Ministry of Culture, and Lorenzo Balbi, President of AMACI, and unfolded across three in-depth sessions dedicated to The Museum as an Educational Institution, The Museum and the Academic World, and The Museum, Artists.

Full italian recording available at the bottom of the page.

PROGRAMME

SESSION 1 – THE MUSEUM AS AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
Directive No. 170/2016 of the Ministry of Education and Merit provides that “museum institutions” are “bodies inherently qualified to provide training for school staff and are not required to register on the lists referred to in paragraph 3, letters a) and b)” (Art.1, paragraph 5). Despite this, non-state public museums struggle to obtain such recognition and must undertake lengthy procedures to secure temporary accreditation. The first session, chaired by Emma Zanella, Director of MA*GA, opened with a brief analysis of the current state of the 26 AMACI Museums with regard to Accreditation as Training Centres and the training activities carried out.

Participants included:
Laura Pazienti, Head of Office VI – School Staff Training, Training of School Headteachers and Accreditation of Bodies, at the Directorate-General for School Staff of the Ministry of Education and Merit;
Alessandra Franzone, Head of Service I – Studies Office at the Directorate-General for Education, Research and Cultural Institutes of the Ministry of Culture;
Roberto Vannata, Head of Service II – National Museum System and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage at the Directorate-General for Museums of the Ministry of Culture.

SESSION 2 – THE MUSEUM AND THE ACADEMIC WORLD
The second session, chaired by Elisabetta Barisoni, Head of the Museums Area at the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and in charge of Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art and the Fortuny Museum, explored the complex relationship between museums and research centres, starting from those AMACI Museums that have established departments which, for decades, have carried out extensive research, education and training activities — both as promoters of complex and varied training initiatives, and as subjects of study in their own right through the analysis of their libraries and archives.

Speakers included:
Irene de Vico Fallani, Head of the Guidance and Development Department and In-Depth Programmes Office at MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts;
Francesco Tedeschi, Director of CRA.IT, the Research Centre on Abstract Art in Italy at the Università Cattolica di Milano;
Pietroluigi Genovesi, Head of MUVE Academy at the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia;
Marcella Beccaria, Deputy Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Chief Curator and Curator of the Castello’s Collections, and Head of CRRI – the Museum’s Research Centre.

SESSION 3 – THE MUSEUM, ARTISTS
Artists engage with museums not only to present their works or publications, but also to expand their field of research and study and to develop genuine artistic projects, transforming the museum from a place of display into a place of research and relationship.

In the third session, chaired by Eva Elisa Fabbris, Director of Madre, speakers included:
Alexander Damianisch, Head of the Support Art and Research Department, Research Centre at the University of Applied Arts Vienna;
Corinne Mazzoli, Artist and PhD candidate at the Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, together with Lorena Giuranna, Head of the Heritage Education and Advanced Training Department at MA*GA;
Alice Visentin, Artist and PhD candidate at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, together with Alberta Romano, Head of Education and Public Programme at Madre.

The closing remarks were given by Lorenzo Balbi, President of AMACI.

Full recording available at the bottom of the page!