Young people and Fondazione PInAC: reappropriating heritage to transform the Museum

This contribution aims to present the virtuous experience of involving young people in public space carried out by the “Fondazione PInAC - Pinacoteca Internazionale dell'Età Evolutiva Aldo Cibaldi” in Rezzato (BS). This educational intervention took place in a museum dedicated to children's expressiveness which collects and catalogs children's and young people's drawings by displaying them to the public through thematic exhibitions. During the 26th ICOM General Conference held in Prague in 2022 the definition of museum was updated, highlighting, among other aspects, that it is a space open to the public, accessible and inclusive, operating with community participation. Indeed, the importance of the Fondazione PInAC lies not only in the custodianship of the material cultural heritage produced by children and young people (Iuso, 2022), but also in their continuous involvement in heritage work (Zuccoli, 2022). Today, in fact, critical heritage studies affirm the need to include more of the underrepresented groups in the cultural heritages of nations, among them the social group of youth (Harrison, Dias, & Kristiansen, 2023; Sparrman, 2022). In the process of building the exhibition that will open in the fall of 2024, Fondazione PInAC has chosen to undertake a participatory design process together with two third-grade secondary school classes, called upon to work on the heritage - fully digitalized - of drawings and propose a reasoned selection starting from their own knowledge, experiences and interests (Sparrman, 2019) with respect to the given theme. This project is part of the path for the achievement of transversal skills and the development of the ability to orient themselves in personal life and in social and cultural reality, as established by current Italian ministerial regulations. The students were first invited to the museum to visit the archives and were trained on the evolution of the graphic-expressive language, in order to provide useful tools to implement a selection not only guided by their own aesthetic taste. They will participate in the reorganization of the exhibition space – also transforming it according to their idea of the exhibition – and then conduct guided tours with children and their families. Giving young people the chance to design a cultural proposal aimed at their peers but also at children and adults means recognizing their dignity of existence in an institutional context, highlighting the need to enhance the meanings they attribute (Colazzo, Del Gobbo, 2022) to an international and historical heritage, on which adults have worked over time, and on which adults have mainly contributed their point of view. This participatory process (Colazzo, Del Gobbo, 2022) within a public institution opens the door to the activation of young people as citizens and invites them to care about cultural heritage. This is reminiscent of the role of schools and cultural institutions such as museums to place themselves in dialogue with young people to accommodate their conceptions with respect to the uses and functions of public space in the cultural sphere as well, as affirmed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Adolescent (United Nations, 1989).