Educate, (re)discover, restart from community
How can we re-educate ourselves in beauty after COVID? The Visioni Notturne Sostenibili Festival mapped out the way to do it (and restart the museum world)
Now in its seventh edition, the Visioni Notturne Sostenibili Festival hosted professionals, scholars and institutions to offer an overview of the opportunities and obstacles brought by "the time of uncertainty". Three days (27-28-29 May) closing a journey designed to also involve schools and young people, the protagonists of the future, dedicated to three fundamental themes: education, localism and community.
These pillars of tomorrow also help us rethink Italy's museum landscape from a new perspective, seeing the museum as a space where the community can find and recognize itself.
Starting from education: from school to the local area, through technology
The central theme of the Festival's first day, held in the Belice area, was education as a starting point for a "thinking" and aware society, conscious of its own identity and its own potential.
From co-design between local authorities and citizens to schools as an "educating community", every guest's contribution clearly showed a strong push to rediscover local territory on one hand, and on the other an important realization: technology has now made people increasingly open to learning.
This is why the education of the future cannot ignore technological tools, smartphones in particular. In the museum world this is already a reality for many organizations: not a trend, but a necessity that opens up new opportunities for growth.
Localism, "slow" tourism and innovation: paths through a 4,000-year history
The event, now in its seventh edition, took place in Salemi, Segesta and Gibellina, unique locations that echo the history of the peoples who wrote our culture in (and from) Sicily. Rediscovering the importance of what is close to us, the value of what we look at every day yet fail to see, is a fundamental activity.
The world of museums, like that of tourism, should draw fully on that history, while innovating through technologies close to visitors and travelers. The tools exist, within reach of any organization, and they meet a need highlighted by many guests: opening up new paths, new thematic routes, new excavation campaigns.
The goal of a "slow" tourism, attentive to nearby places and enhanced by new technologies, is not a utopia, but one of the possibilities offered by the post-pandemic world.
The Festival's lesson
In conclusion, then, the three days can be seen as a kind of "manifesto" for restarting, one that could ideally be replicated in every museum, large or small.
- Educate to have an audience more willing to listen and understand.
- Rethink the relationship with visitors in order to create an unforgettable experience.
- Engage with the community using new methods and language shaped by digital.
The Festival's Artistic Director Giuseppe Maiorana confirmed what we have been saying for some time through the Summit and the podcast #OMMalive: there is a need to get involved, to fully immerse ourselves in the moment we are living, and to accept a new role for the museum and for the people who work there.
Could this be the time?
