Communities

The Museo Egizio, with the support of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), has developed a completely free educational project aimed both at deepening knowledge of this ancient civilisation from the Nile Valley and at improving our territory as a “decentralised classroom” full of opportunities.

The Museo Egizio A/R project starts from the premise that cultural heritage has an identity and relational function. Facilitating and encouraging the use of the collections and contents offered by the Museo Egizio means investing in the ability of new generations to become promoters of a small revolution - seeking new meanings, contents and stimuli in culture and heritage.

This is a three-stage educational project offered to primary schools in the Turin metropolitan area. The project developed throughout the entire 2022/2023 school year (for 3rd and 4th year classes only) and the first four months of the 2023/2024 school year (for 4th and 5th year classes). Since September, the project has already involved 88 classes and ended in February 2023 with the aim of reaching 2,500 young students in Turin’s hinterland.

In order for the experience at the museum and with the museum to not be perceived by young students as sporadic and occasional but, in fact the opposite, by encouraging the excitement of discovery and active involvement in learning processes, we scheduled three distinct and different events:

1) FIRST LIVE ONLINE LECTURE with an Egyptologist - "ASK ME: THE MUSEO EGIZIO RISPONDS"

2) GUIDED TOUR OF THE ME COLLECTIONS - with free pick-up directly on school premises

3) SECOND LIVE ONLINE LECTURE with an Egyptologist - "OUR MUSEO EGIZIO" .

In addition, classes are invited to participate in a competition of ideas, with the aim of creating a small museum guide written BY the children FOR children. The individual works created by the participating classes will be examined by a select group staff members and the most interesting projects will receive a special prize.

Children’s observations and points of view are just as precious as the objects housed in the Museum. The classes involved in the project therefore become “ambassadors'” of the Museum and its collection.

The project "Giovani Visioni al Museo" (Young Visions at the Museum), created in response to the growing phenomenon defined as NEET (Neither in Employment nor in Education or Training), is the result of the collaboration between the Museo Egizio and Visionary Movement and is supported by the Dipartimento per le politiche giovanili e il servizio civile universale dalla Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri. Young Visions at the Museum aims at being a motivational type of support for young people who, for various reasons, have lost or have not yet found a direction in terms of studies or work, also according to their passions or interests.

The project is directed at young people aged between 18 and 29, residents in Turin and its provinces, who are neither in education or training nor in the world of work.

It consists of 8 repeatable modules lasting 4 weeks each. Each month, from April to December 2022, groups of 15 participants had the opportunity to explore the museum with the aim of identifying, among the artefacts in the collection, an object that acted as a stimulus for a personal narrative that was subsequently made available to Museum visitors via QR codes integrated into the Museum’s visitors route.

The aim is to strengthen young people's perception of the Museum as a possible training ground for observation, listening and communication, increasing self-awareness and a sense of belonging to the community also through acquiring technical skills in digital storytelling and communicative design.

At the end of the course, in order to offer all participants further opportunities to deepen their knowledge of the topics discussed and their lived experience, free short courses are held by IED Istituto Europeo di Design and Scuola Holden, at the end of which an attendance certificate will be issued.

Social inclusion

The Museo Egizio is at the forefront in encouraging social inclusion. It promotes many initiatives:

“Museums and migrants. Tools for encounters” is a Museo Egizio project in collaboration with ABCittà.

Consisting of three days of training, study and reciprocal listening among museum and cultural professionals and social workers from the city of Turin and other areas. Each day is divided into a morning of listening to practices and views, and an afternoon of workshops, in the Museum’s galleries, facilitated by ABCittà.

FIRST STAGE (04 June 2018) - THE NEEDS OF MIGRANTS. Museums have long been committed to affirming that, in addition to carrying out the essential practice of studying, valorising and preserving a collective heritage, they also feel the responsibility of being viewed and used as places of confrontation and dialogue. In particular, intercultural dialogue in the age of migration is perceived as an essential feature to which commitment and resources must be devoted, in order not to miss out on the interaction with a rapidly changing society.

On this day, the reality of migration is represented by those who play a role in first reception and those who follow the path of those who migrate and are looking for a future, or have managed to define their own social role.

A meeting for migrants' needs, where possible, in order to develop a form of co-planning that favours a more virtuous system, aimed at sharing reflections, resources and results.

The questions that form the background to this meeting are:
- What are the keywords that frame the current situation of migration in Turin?
- What is the most urgent matters?
- What are the 'beacons' to guide action in the near future, and what are the most vital resources to leverage?

SECOND STAGE (26 November 2018) - MUSEUMS AND MIGRANTS: COMPARISON PRACTICES How are Italian and European museums addressing the issue of migration, both in terms of public discourse and internal reflection? How much space do they give to the voices of those who experience migration issues first hand, and through which tools? What impacts, discourses or even questioning does this kind of listening and attention generate? How does curatorship allow itself to be transformed? What are the most effective projects in terms of education and communication? And then, how is the effectiveness of a project measured?

On this second day, the museums take the floor with the story of their vision or specific projects.
In the afternoon, a "case clinic" session encourages reflection on concrete case studies, refining planning skills, in discussion with the group and working on awareness of limits and possibilities.

The questions that form the background to this meeting are:
- How do European museums deal with the issue of migration?
- What tools do they choose to open up a dialogue with migrants?
- Do multicultural audiences influence museum choices?
- Which projects favour cultural accessibility the most?

THIRD STAGE (18 February 2019) - MUSEUMS AND CITIZENSHIP: DIALOGUE TOOLS During the third meeting, social citizenship is the protagonist of a discussion on the role of museums for social change and the fight against stereotypes: the round table involves civil society and the associations that represent it, capable of addressing a diverse public interested in better understanding the role and potential of museums.

What builds the dimension of social citizenship? Certainly the awareness of rights and duties, the ability to move in public spaces and services, the awareness of one's role within a complex social fabric. But perhaps also other elements that are being built day by day, and which must be considered with clarity. It is an orchestra in which many instruments play, and here we try to bring forth some of them: education, general care and health, journalism (and more generally of language), and justice.

The questions that form the background to this meeting are:
- How are museums, hospitals, schools, prisons, public offices and all other types of institutions in society interconnected?
- How can we increase moments of mutual listening?
- How can we build lasting relationships that strengthen social networks while safeguarding the specific nature of each one?

Learning Italian through art at the Museo Egizio

Since 2019, the Museo Egizio has been hosting an experimental workshop for teaching Italian L2 in its galleries. The students involved, who come from all over the world, attend a course at CPIA Torino 1, and some lessons from their curriculum take place in galleries at the Museum. While in the Museum, the students learn about the collection and at the same time have the opportunity to practice the Italian language and create new narratives starting from personal experiences. The workshop is an opportunity for gathering together, intercultural exchange and alternative education, aimed at a public that would otherwise not have access to the museum.

In 2018, the Museo Egizio started a collaboration with Balon Mundial, the Migrant Communities Cup, a project born in order to foster intercultural dialogue through sport. Up until now, the league has involved the communities of 30 different countries, all based in Turin, and 17 accomodation centres around the city. The collaboration arises from a series of projects involving migrant communities in the area, and aims at presenting the Museum not only as a conservation place of a common heritage, but also as an open space, to promote the integration and the dialogue among different cultures. On that note, from the 15th of June to the 15th of September 2018, the communities of the Balon Mundial league, will be able to visit the Museum with a reduced fare.

To learn more, info@balonmundial.it

The Museo Egizio intends to promote itself as a place for meeting and dialogue and as an intermediary in overcoming social barriers. Organised on the occasion of World Refugee Day, the “I am welcome” evening offers a programme of activities held on the museum premises, which the public can enter free of charge: theatre, cinema, music and other art forms provide a opportunity for exchanges between different cultures.
In exchange for free entry, each visitor is asked to write or draw a welcome message and place it on the Welcome Wall, a great symbol of openness and welcome.

In collaboration with the Turin based MIC Association (Mondi in Città ONLUS), the Museum aims to promote the integration of women who immigrated from Egypt and North Africa to the city. In 2016 and 2017, eleven women took part in a training course made up of ten lessons taking place at the museum, in order to explore themes related to the daily life in Ancient Egypt and to acquire the knowledge to be able to lead thematic guided tours. These women are often leading group visits at the Museum, during special events.

Devoted to the New Italians, the promotion campaign “Lucky to speak Arabic” aims to encourage enjoyment of the city’s cultural offerings, enabling Arabic-speaking citizens to be increasingly part of the community where they have chosen to live and share the future. From 6 December 2017 to 31 March 2018, 2 Arabic-speaking citizens can enter for the cost of one full ticket. In addition, from 13 January to 31 March 2018, the Museum offered free guided tours in Arabic given by the women who participated in “My Museo Egizio”, a project of cultural mediation promoted by MIC, Mondi in Città, with the aim of recounting the museum collections through female voices of the North African community.
Also available for visitors are room descriptions, video guides and the “Family Tour” (to be used with the audioguide) in Arabic.

Since the opening of the Nuovo Museo Egizio, meetings and visits have been organised for representatives of various foreign communities present in the region, mainly from Egypt.
In particular, an interesting initiative was held in collaboration with the non-profit organisation MIC – Mondi in Città, active for years in the field of schooling and integration of migrant women. A group of about 130 women, mainly from North Africa and the Middle East, took part in special visits with the museum curators supported by cultural mediators.
Some of these women implemented the concepts acquired in a training course (the project “My Museo Egizio”) intended to make them protagonists of special meetings with members of their communities.

In order to foster the intercultural dialogue, the Museo Egizio joined a project in collaboration with the Museo d’Arte Orientale, addressed to young people from the Egyptian community, which has a long history in the Turin area. The Egyptian School “Il Nilo”, in Turin, is involved in the project. Its students, aged 8 to 13 years old, were asked to elaborate on the information acquired during the visits at the two museums. The experience turned into a small publication and a video, made by older students who took part in a videomaking course.

From the 11th to the 14th of May 2017, in collaboration with the Amici Collaboratori del Museo Egizio Association, a series film screenings open to the public was presented at the Museo Egizio, which in those days turned into, not only a movie theatre, but also a meeting place, where to talk about Egypt and related issues. “Miramar, l’Egitto sullo schermo” offered new perspectives on modern Egypt, with its long history of films production, one of the oldest and most important in the Arab world.

The Museum outside the Museum

The programme “The Museum outside the Museum” grew out of a commitment to make the contents of the Museo Egizio’s collections accessible to all those unable to visit the Museum in Via Accademia delle Scienze. For the various institutions (hospitals, prisons, schools, universities) a special educational path has been developed to reach and involve new publics. This creates an access channel that allows different groups of users to actively experience the collection.

Since 2014, with the collaboration of Fondazione Forma, the Museum has organized laboratories addressed to children and teens, aged 5 to 17 years old, at the Regina Margherita children’s hospital. Since 2018, the laboratories program has become more regular, with many activities scheduled during the year. These labs are organized by two curators and a member of the Communication Office of the Museum. They take place both at the hospital library, an area accessible to the patients of different wards, and in the hospital rooms of people who are not able to move. Furthermore, the Museum has arranged some guided tours for those who could temporarily leave the hospital.

The project aims to share information about the Museo Egizio collections and its activities to the inmates of the Lorusso Cutugno prison. A corpus of objects, namely the funerary equipment of the tomb of Kha, was chosen and presented during a lecture to the inmates who are enrolled in carpentry workshop classes at “Plana” and who take lessons at “Primo” art school. A selection of objects was chosen by the teachers and duplicated by the inmates, using different materials. These handmade copies will be employed in other activities included in the “Il Museo fuori dal Museo” project.

The Egyptian Museum celebrates reading, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Library Service, with a special project: a travelling exhibition dedicated to papyri, in particular the Book of the Dead, the discovery of hieroglyphs and other forms of Egyptian writing.
At the center of the exhibition is a replica of the Book of the Dead of Taysnakht made on papyrus as part of "Free to Learn", a project born from the collaboration with the Casa Circondariale Lorusso-Cutugno of Turin. Parallel to the exhibition will be organized events and other activities for adults and children, for more information about it click here.

The network of Turin Civic Libraries has 18 locations and a travelling Bibliobus, with three locations at the Casa Circondariale "Lorusso-Cutugno" and the Istituto Penale per i Minorenni "Ferrante Aporti". In addition to the prestigious services and the digital library, monthly meetings, reading groups and other activities are included.

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