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How to re-educate ourselves about beauty after COVID? The Sustainable Night Visions Festival has mapped out the path to do so (and jumpstart the museum world)
Now in its seventh year, the Sustainable Night Visions Festival hosted professionals, scholars and institutions to give an overview of the opportunities and obstacles that the “time of uncertainty” has brought. Three days (May 27-28-29) at the conclusion of a journey designed to also involve schools and young people, the protagonists of the future, dedicated to as many fundamental themes: education, localism and community.
These pillars of tomorrow help us to also rethink the Italian museum reality from a new perspective, to interpret the museum as a container in which the community can find itself and reflect itself.
Starting with education: from school to territory, through technology
Thematic heart of the first day of the Festival presented in the Belicino area was that of education as a starting point for a “thinking” and aware society, conscious of its identity and also of its potential.
From co-design between government and citizens to the school as an “educating community,” in each of the guests’ speeches there clearly emerged a strong drive to rediscover the local area on the one hand, but also an important realization on the other: technology today has predisposed people to be more and more open to learning.
Therefore, future education cannot disregard the consideration of technological tools, particularly the smartphone. In the museum world, this is already a reality for many organizations: not a fad, but a necessity that opens up new opportunities for growth.
Localism, “slow” tourism and innovation: paths to a 4,000-year history
The event, now in its seventh year, featured Salemi, Segesta and Gibellina, unique locations that echo the history of peoples who in (and from) Sicily wrote our culture. Rediscovering the importance of what is close to us, the value of what we look at every day and yet do not see, is a fundamental activity.
The museum world, as well as the tourism world, should draw heavily on that history, but innovating through technologies close to visitors and travelers. The tools exist, are within the reach of any organization, and make it possible to meet a need stressed by many guests: to open up new avenues, new thematic routes, new excavation campaigns.
The goal of “slow” and mindful Tourism to nearby places, enhanced by new technologies, is not a utopia, but one of the perspectives offered by the post-pandemic world.
The teaching of the Festival
Here, in conclusion, the three-day event can be seen as a kind of “manifesto” of the restart, which could ideally be replicated in every museum reality, large and small.
- Educate to have an audience more likely to listen and understand.
- Rethinking the relationship with the visitor in order to create an unforgettable experience.
- Dialogue with the community using new digitally influenced ways and languages.
Festival Artistic Director Giuseppe Maiorana confirmed what we have been repeating for some time with the Summit and with the podcast #OMMalive: there is a need to get involved, to step completely into the moment we are living and accept a new role for the museum and the people who work there.
Could this be the right time?
