Are you seeking a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in art while exploring the enchanting corners and alleys of Venice? We have 16 recommendations for you.

In this guide, we’ll take you through the projects we have produced and coordinated for the 2024 edition of the International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, titled Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, running until November 24.

Before we embark on this journey together, we want to ensure your visit is unforgettable by sharing some practical tips for making the most of your cultural experience.

A guide full of useful tips for your visit path, curated by specialists in exhibition design and experts of the city of Venice.

Visiting the Biennale isn’t just about exploring a single exhibition space; it’s also about discovering the hidden corners of Venice. Many national pavilions and collateral events take place in magnificent historic buildings outside the main areas of the Arsenale and Gardens. We recommend taking the time to explore these fascinating locations, rich in history and culture, that are off the beaten path.

Be prepared to navigate open areas during your visit. Venice is an outdoor city with limited shelter from the elements, regardless of the season. You may encounter hot, sunny days as well as windy and rainy moments. The weather conditions contribute to Venice’s unique charm. When planning your visit, check the weather forecast to anticipate high tide, a fascinating phenomenon that can affect your itinerary.

Depending on the number and location of the exhibitions, your visit could take several hours. Some areas may lack seating or resting spots, so keep in mind that you might be walking for an extended period. We recommend wearing comfortable shoes to fully enjoy the experience without discomfort.

Some exhibition areas feature gravel paths and unpaved surfaces that may not be suitable for all types of footwear. Comfortable shoes will help you navigate between the various exhibition spaces and the city, which is known for its many bridges with steps.

Certain areas of Venice may not be easily accessible to all visitors, particularly those with physical disabilities or those traveling with wheelchairs or pushchairs. When planning your stay, we recommend checking the accessibility of the locations you intend to visit and preparing an itinerary that takes any potential access difficulties into account.

Venice’s numerous locations and exhibition spaces provide endless opportunities for photo shoots and video recordings. However, there are no specific charging points available. We recommend bringing a power bank or portable battery to ensure you can capture all your memories without worrying about your phone or camera battery life.

Now that we're ready, let's start our visit together. Take our map at your fingertips and let's go!

Pavilion of Saudi Arabia, Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

Waterbus: Arsenale Stop

After a short walk to reach the entrance and time needed to capture panoramic shots, we can finally enter and start our tour with a visit to the Pavilion of Saudi Arabia and Shifting Sands: A Battle Song, a solo project by Manal AlDowayan, one of the most significant contemporary artists in the country. 
Entering the exhibition space, you will be fascinated by the imposing sculptures imitating desert roses, made of foam and raw silk, which evoke the delicacy and symbolism of the desert rose. Beyond its aesthetic beauty, the project involves the visitor with its content, which speaks of cultural transformations and the role of women in the country. Walking between one element and another, you will lose yourself in the discovery of silkscreened stories and texts that reflect the image of women through the media lens.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of Mexico, 'As we marched away, we were always coming back...', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

Crossing the side entrance to the Saudi Arabia Pavilion, our visit continues with the presentation of the Pavilion of Mexico with 'As we marched away, we were always coming back...'. 
Inside the space, large screens narrate scenes of migratory life, framing a large table set with sparkling white porcelain. The colour of the objects lights up with the surrounding reflections, taking on different shades depending on the reflected image and the angle from which we observe them, underlining the opportunity to acquire experiences through interaction with different cultures. Erick Meyenberg, the main artist, invites us to reconsider migration as a constant in human experiences, revealing the importance and role of the migratory phenomenon as a source of contamination and enrichment.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of Turkey, 'Hollow and Broken: A State of the World', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

Exiting the space, we head towards the building's stairs, where you can visit the Pavilion of Turkey with 'Hollow and Broken: A State of the World', an exhibition project that uses large-scale sculptural works to represent 'broken' and empty settings, symbolising a world hit by wars, migrations, environmental, and nuclear dangers. This project explores the country's complex contemporary socio-political issues through the personal and historical narratives of the artist, one of the most representative in the contemporary Greek panorama.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of Senegal, 'Bokk - Bounds', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale

We leave behind the Turkey Pavilion and continue our tour, starting again with the spaces on the ground floor with a visit to the Pavilion of Senegal and 'Bokk - Bounds', a solo project by artist Alioune Diagne. Through contemporary pointillism, the artist presents scenes of everyday life in the country, marked by constant migratory phenomena, also due to climate change. In the centre of the space, a large broken canoe catches the viewer's eye, inviting them to reflect on this theme, which is more relevant than ever in today's life.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of Malta, 'I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

We continue towards the Pavilion of Malta with I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP by artist Matthew Attard.
Once inside the space, you will be immersed in the discovery of large interactive panels that narrate a series of sea routes through distinctive signs. This exhibition explores the relationship between the sea and religion, offering a powerful metaphor of hope and survival. The project invites visitors to reflect on the need to reformulate the ways of acting and living together, in order to successfully navigate the uncharted waters of the information society.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of Lebanon, 'A Dance with her Myth', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

Passing through Malta, we come across the Pavilion of Lebanon, where artist Mounira Al Solh with 'A Dance with her Myth' has created a suggestive exhibition space halfway between myth and reality.
Her multimedia installation combines painting, drawing, sculpture, embroidery, and video, revisiting mythological tales and offering visitors alternative perspectives on the country's history.

Open until 24 November 2024

Philippines Pavilion, 'Waiting Just Behind the Curtain of This Age', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

Finally, along the same route, our tour continues with the discovery of the Philippines Pavilion. Here we find the solo project 'Waiting Just Behind the Curtain of This Age' by Filipino artist Mark Salvatus, which invites reflection on daily politics and national historical narrative. Everything takes place in a mystical atmosphere, enriched by sounds and wind instruments, with projections of forest flora on a screen.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of Uzbekistan, 'Don't Miss the Cue', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

We exit the exhibition corridor and cross the gravelled outdoor spaces of the picturesque Arsenale to reach the Pavilion of Uzbekistan.
Once inside, we immerse ourselves in the evocative installation by Aziza Kadyri, which recreates the atmosphere of a backstage inspired by the Houses of Culture of 20th century Eurasia. In the darkened room, we begin to explore the theatrical setting, featuring sculptures created from sketches of traditional costumes integrated with audiovisual materials produced by the Qizlar Collective. The artist invites us to 'Don't Miss the Cue', reflecting on critical themes such as migration, decolonisation, language, social invisibility, and the relationship between tradition and technology.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of China, 'Atlas: Harmony in Diversity', Biennale Arte 2024, Arsenale, Venice

The last project you can discover at the Arsenale is 'Atlas: Harmony in Diversity' by the Pavilion of China. This exhibition invites you to collect and bring together diverse identities, races, beliefs, concepts, and cultures, creating opportunities for mutual communication and understanding.
The idea of harmony and symbiosis in Chinese culture is represented by the character “集”, which shows three birds on a tree. As a verb, “集” means to gather and bring together, while as a noun, it indicates a collection of art or knowledge. Both uses emphasise the importance of integration and dialogue, fundamental values that the China Pavilion aims to convey through this exhibition.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of Finland,'The Pleasure We Choose', Biennale Arte 2024, Giardini, Venice

We leave the Arsenale exhibition space and head towards Giardini for a visit to the Pavilion of Finland and'The Pleasure We Choose'. This project features the work of three artists: Pia Lindman, Vidha Saumya, and Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo-Heimonen. Their works, inspired by personal experiences, explore the structural, environmental, and social imbalances of the world through various techniques and media, celebrating the pleasure of the personal sphere as a powerful means to inhabit, imagine, and reinvent plural worlds.

Open until 24 November 2024

A moment of rest, because our tour continues.

As mentioned, the Biennale is not limited to hosting exhibition projects only in the spaces of the Arsenale and Giardini. Numerous events, including national pavilions and collateral events, take place in splendid palaces and locations in the city that are normally not accessible to the public, offering a unique opportunity to discover alternative heritage, beyond the traditional "walls".
After a break (and some reading), we resume our journey to explore the projects we had the pleasure of contributing to with our services.

Pavilion of Chile, 'Cosmonación', Biennale Arte 2024, Warehouse No. 42, Naval Station, Arsenale of Venice, Fondamenta Case Nuove 2738/C, Venice

Not far from the entrance to the Arsenale space, we head towards the Arsenale Warehouses. Here we can visit the Pavilion of Chile with 'Cosmonación' by artist Valeria Montti Colque. The focal point of the exhibition is a majestic sculpture over five metres high, depicting a mountain, a symbol of a safe haven for exiled and refugees. Around it, a multisensory environment is created with ceramic figures, textile pieces, and video projections, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in a unique and engaging experience.

Open until 24 November 2024

Tomokazu Matsuyama: Mythologiques, Biennale Arte 2024, Warehouse No. 41, Naval Station, Arsenale, Fondamenta Case Nuove, 2738/C, Venice

Close to the Chile Pavilion, it is also possible to visit the exhibition 'Mythologiques' by the artist Tomokazu Matsuyama. This exhibition is a journey through vibrant images and colours that explore the complexity of globalised society. The works present fantastic scenes of contemporary life, combining the iconography of ancient Japan with Western canons in an original form of American pop art.

Open until 24 November 2024

Pavilion of the Sultanate of Oman, 'Malath-Haven', Biennale Arte 2024, Palazzo Navagero Gallery, Castello 4147, Venice

Returning to the National Pavilions, it should be noted that for its second participation in the Venice Biennale, the Sultanate of Oman has chosen to collaborate with us for the production of 'Malath-Haven', a collective project involving five artists: Alia Al Farsi, Ali Al Jabri, Essa Al Mufarji, Sarah Al Olaqi and Adham Al Farsi. Inspired by the concept of “malath” (port in Arabic), the exhibition invites visitors to embark on a metaphorical and artistic journey, exploring themes of multicultural heritage, identity, belonging, and diaspora. Through different art forms, the works reflect on Oman’s profound history of welcome and refuge, celebrating the richness of cultural exchanges and the strength of human connections.

Open until 24 November 2024

'About Us', Tracey Snelling for the The Human Safety Net, Biennale Arte 2024, Procuratie Vecchie, San Marco

If you are in Venice, you absolutely cannot miss Piazza San Marco and the magnificent bell tower. Turn your gaze towards the Clock Tower and under the arcades of this enchanting square, you will find the entrance to the Procuratie Vecchie exhibition space, which houses The Human Safety Net and the exhibition 'About Us' by the artist Tracey Snelling.
Upon entering the space, your gaze will be captivated by towers of small houses glued together to represent large modern cities. These somewhat alienated structures, designed by the artist, enclose a myriad of worlds and narratives in which each of us can find interpretations or identify with.

Open until 24 March 2024

'Jim Dine: Dog on the forge', Biennale Arte 2024, Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfu

We head towards the Ponte dell'Accademia to admire one of the most beautiful views of the city and the Grand Canal. After dedicating ourselves to a few shots to capture the moment, we continue our cultural visit in the city.
Only until the end of July, don't miss the exhibition  'Jim Dine: 'Dog on the Forge'  hosted inside the marvellous Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfu. Here the artist Jim Dine presents large installations created specifically for this edition of the Biennale, along with paintings and sculptures never before exhibited. The exhibition includes 32 works of art, including paintings, drawings, bronze and wood sculptures.

Open until 21 July 2024

'ULYSSES, we are all heroes', Biennale Arte 2024, Fondacion Valmont, Palazzo Bonvicini, Venice

What fascinates us about contemporary art is its ability to offer opportunities to review the classics and present new perspectives. This is evident at the Fondacion Valmont at Palazzo Bonvicini, which presents with our contribution 'ULYSSES, we are all heroes', a fascinating project that brings together the works of four international artists: Gayle Chong Kwan, Stephanie Blake, ISAO and Didier Guillon. These artists reinterpret and revisit the classic tale of the Odyssey in a contemporary key.
Exploring this project means embarking on a conceptual journey of wonder and contemplation.

Open until 23 February 2025

Our tour of the city of Venice and the projects we curated for this edition of the Biennale ends here. 
We hope that our editorial guide has been to your liking and can enrich your experience during the live visit.

We also invite you to take us with you and consult our map available at this link, to further explore the city and its heritage. 
Don't forget to take photos and tag us along your journey: we will be happy to share your moments on our social channels. 

#ArtIsInTheProcess and now enjoy your visit!


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Giulia Barigelli
Communication Manager


Exploring Art Biennale 2024: A Journey Through Exhibition Design

How many times have we entered an exhibition space and been captivated by the power of the colors in the setup? Visiting an art exhibition is an immersive experience, a journey through sensations and inspirations. As our eyes wander, admiring the artworks that fill the walls and rooms of museums, galleries, and exhibition spaces, we often overlook the essential role that color plays in shaping the surrounding environment.

While artworks are the heart of the scene, the color context adds value and enhances the visitor's experience.

Studies on the psychology and perception of color highlight the significance of this element in shaping our emotions and worldview. Colors go far beyond aesthetics; they are powerful tools of communication that influence our behavior and mood, functioning as a universal language that speaks directly to our subconscious.

In the art world, colors carry meaning and associations, reflecting the artist's symbolism and distinctive style. Think of the famous 'Klein blue' or the vibrant 'Titian red.' Each color evokes deep emotions and stirs powerful sensations, contributing to a unique and memorable visit.

As Josef Albers (Bottrop, Germany 1888 – New Haven, United States 1976), one of the foremost figures in 20th-century geometric abstraction and known for his explorations of color 'interactions,' once said: 'In visual perception, a color is almost never seen as it truly is, but as it appears in relation to its surroundings and our individual experiences.'

Indeed, color is intimately connected to our personal perceptions and environment, creating a unique emotional and sensory dialogue that enriches the experience.

“Colours are living beings, highly evolved individuals who integrate with us and with everything in the world.” 
Yves Klein 
(Nice, France 1928 – Paris, France 1962)

In the world of exhibition design, understanding the properties of color is essential for creating engaging projects. In fact, careful color design can truly revolutionize the visitor experience, transforming it into something extraordinary. 

Beyond the artwork

Exhibition design goes far beyond simply arranging artworks; color choices are never random but carefully and strategically planned. Colors can enhance the exhibition's theme, create immersive atmospheres, or draw attention to specific works.

Warm tones can create an intimate, welcoming ambiance, while cooler tones may suggest a larger space—though sometimes at the risk of making it feel sterile. Brightly colored corridors can guide visitors, indicating the exhibition's progression. Similarly, varying colors across different sections can help distinguish themes or highlight key works, ensuring a cohesive journey through the exhibition. Bold colors, on the other hand, can evoke feelings of alienation or tension, shaping the visitor's emotional experience.

Given the complexity of this subject, we invite you on a special chromatic journey through some of the projects we've worked on over the years, offering a deeper understanding of this approach.

Imagine crossing the threshold of a space filled with bright and vibrant colours: what feeling would it evoke in you?

Pavilion of Mexico, Utopian Infrastructure: The Peasant Basketball Court, Venice Biennale, Architecture 2023

In 2023, we collaborated on an extraordinary installation for the Pavilion of Mexico: a rural basketball court, painted in bold shades of yellow and blue, set against the picturesque backdrop of the Salone delle Armi at the Venice Arsenal. The vibrant colors immediately capture the audience's attention, drawing the eye to this striking scene. This project was designed to provoke reflection on significant themes in the country’s social history.

A vibrant, dazzling yellow also featured in the Pavilion of Turkey of 2021. Here, the wall color and intense lighting flatten the surrounding space, creating a disorienting effect. This installation was designed to emphasize the connection between the everyday and the global context, advocating for a more active role for architecture in the contemporary world.


Pavilion of Turkey, Architecture as Measure, La Biennale di Venezia, Architettura 2021

Speaking of disorienting sensations, we must mention the 2022 Venice project, Alice in Doomedland, a thematic exhibition held at Palazzo Bonvicini by the Fondation Valmont and curated by Luca Berta and Francesca Giubilei. This contemporary reinterpretation of Alice in Wonderland was designed to guide visitors on an inner journey, featuring oversized objects, neon text, and striking color contrasts. It’s a sensory-rich experience, where the deep purple symbolizes the hidden realms of the unconscious, while the yellow represents light and self-awareness.

Alice in Doomedland, Palazzo Bonvicini, 2022

Finally, our journey brings us to a sea of bright blue, reminiscent of the Pavilion of Belgium in 2018. A large amphitheater fills the entire building, inviting reflection on the pressing issues faced by the European Union at the time, many of which remain relevant today. The blue, both calming and inspiring, imbues the space with the atmosphere of a sanctuary. It is an environment suited for hosting large crowds, yet intimate enough for individual visitors to embark on their own personal journeys of discovery.

Pavilion of Belgium, Eurotopie, La Biennale di Venezia, Architettura, 2018 

As we've seen from the examples provided, the use of specific tones can be a powerful tool to enrich and elevate the overall experience of an art exhibition, helping visitors connect more deeply with the works and share a meaningful, memorable encounter.

Have you ever visited an exhibition or project that particularly impressed you with its color choices?

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Giulia Barigelli 
Communication Manager

Colour Curatorship: Guiding the Visitor Experience through Exhibition Design

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Venice International Performance Art Week, we presented the collective performance opera Under Scars at Palazzo Mora, the historical premises of the European Cultural Centre in Venice, on Saturday, December 17, at 7:00 pm (admission free). Under Scars was envisioned and devised by the artist duos VestAndPage (Verena Stenke & Andrea Pagnes) and Andrigo & Aliprandi in collaboration with Irina Baldini, Sabrina Bellenzier, Giorgia de Santi, daz disley, Nicola Fornoni, Marisa Garreffa, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Ash McNaughton, Aisha Pagnes, Enok Ripley, Sara Simeoni, Mauro Sambo, Joseph Morgan Schofield, Marcel Sparmann and Emily Welther.

The experience of the collective performance opera Body Matters: Anam Cara – Dwelling Bodies in 2018 made us imagine a radically different direction for the Venice International Performance Art Week. We realised that the production of collective performance operas should be nurtured by artists-in-residences that provide time and space for the needed intensive co-creation processes. Under Scars grew from this insight as a collective performance opera and work-in-progress. It developed from Body Matters: Co-Creation Residency, a shared artistic research and a co-creative path undertaken by 15 performance and sound artists organised in June 2023 at C32 performing arts workspace in Forte Marghera (Venice).

Under Scars is a gathering of experienced artists and performers who challenge their practice to attempt novel perspectives on art and society. It is a collective work that gravitates around the themes of disability, severe diseases, addiction, patriarchy, capitalism, abuse and discrimination. The wounds and stigma they cause are dealt with poetically through performance actions and art making rituals of kinship and togetherness. On this occasion, Palazzo Mora’s main hall and six adjacent rooms transform into a dwelling site of interconnected performance installations, where temporary, intensive co-creation processes aim to reveal the qualities of existence. The hosting space functions as a social-narrative incubator wherein performance methods are intertwined for coagulating inclusive and expansive life stories. The collaborative performance unfolds as it builds on sustained encounters of different artistic research combined with performative practices. As the title suggests, the artists now gather to unveil precious experiences of vulnerabilities, hesitations, fragilities, hopes, the unspoken they carry under their cicatrices, and wounds healed by performing. Memories and experiential transformation processes entwine and collide to respond poetically to present emergencies.

Young performance artist Nicola Fornoni has a core role in the performance opera, alongside artists and performers who supported the ten years of activities of the Venice International Performance Art Week to today or have previously collaborated with us. Passion, creativity and enthusiasm are the primary resources that allow us to perform and experiment. All of us participating artists are producers of ourselves. We have reconstituted a cluster of performers who offer live art to create reflection and dialogue on the present urgencies and emergencies. Over the past five months, developing a sense of community and belonging, we have been working together to assemble the performance opera, aware of its complexity and duration of almost three hours.

After six successful editions of the Venice International Performance Art Week, seven Summer Classes of its educational program, and the two-year interruption due to the pandemic, Under Scars is now an opportunity to understand today’s audience for performance art in Venice. Finally, it also signifies returning to my origins in social theatre and applied drama. That is, I envision this work as a form of collective care.

We Exhibit for The Venice International Performance Art Week 2022

Art projects

Museums

Accessibility

Sharing what we have learned, telling behind-the-scenes stories, and the reasons behind display and design choices: welcome to our magazine. The articles we propose are a way to develop a more attentive, critical, but also curious gaze that begins  with the reflections of those who work at We Exhibit, and other professionals and experts we esteem.

Our articles are a way to develop a more attentive, critical and curious gaze that begins with the reflections of our team, and other professionals and experts we esteem. 

Magazine | Exhibit Design | We Exhibit

Education

A green museum is a museum that incorporates concepts of sustainability into its operations, programming, and facility. Many green museums use their collections to produce exhibitions, events, classes, and other programming to educate the public about the natural environment. Many, but not all, green museums reside in a building featuring sustainable architecture and technology. Green museums interpret their own sustainable practices and green design to present a model of behavior. Green museums strive to help people become more conscious of the limitations of their world, and how their actions affect their world. The goal is to create positive change by encouraging people to make sustainable choices in their daily lives. They use their position as community-centered institutions to create a culture of sustainability.

Green museums aim to promote a culture of sustainability, which can be defined in two parts: culture, which includes the values, practices, beliefs and aspirations of a society. Whilst sustainability asks people to adapt at a cultural level, changing their beliefs and behavior.

Museums are in a unique position to establish and promote a culture of sustainability as they are arenas that simulataneousy preserve and create culture. As a result, museums are now considered to have a key role in shaping a sustainable future. These changes can be achieved through their exhibitions as well as their active engagement in debates surrounding climatic and environmental changes.

Museums have the capacity to influence visitor attitudes toward their local environment that can have a positive impact, for example, on the preservation of local biodiversity. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery joined a global coalition to raise awareness about the protection of biodiversity and launched its exhibit Extinction Voices which aimed to highlight the threat of wildlife extinction and gather ideas for collective action. Another aspect of museums role in the culture of sustainability is getting their visitors to engage in climate change and sustainability issues more widely.

Museums are taking a more active approach to the project development of their exhibits. Children's museums initiated the green museum movement, mainly out of health concerns for the young visitors. Using toxic materials and chemicals on structures intended for children became a high worry for both the museum staff and parents. "In its 2004 expansion project the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh used only adhesives, sealants, paints, carpets, and composite wood that are certified formaldehyde free with near-zero off-gassing."

Before the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra became mainstream, a small number of museums had already begun promoting sustainable decision making through exhibits. The Boston Children's Museum, developed a concept known as "The Recycle Shop".

Organizations are working to develop a standard rating system for the specific needs of green exhibitions. In 2008, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) developed the OMSI Green Exhibit Certification guide to assist museums in assessing the environmental sustainability of their exhibits, and to help develop more sustainable forward plans. Based on the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, the OMSI Green Exhibition Certification guide simplified and adapted the LEED system to cater to the specific needs of the museum sector, especially in view of the limited financial and human resources found in many museums.

The guide provides a checklist for organizations who follows eight elements regularly used in exhibit design.

After evaluation, they are awarded 0-4 points:

1. Rapidly Renewable Materials
2. Resource Reuse
3. Recycled Content
4. End-life Assessment
5. Low-Emitting Materials
6. Certified wood
7. Conservation
8. Regional Materials

Through the project, Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), OMSI also developed Exhibit Social Environmental and Economic Development (Exhibit SEED) in collaboration with multidisciplinary professionals across the United States. Exhibit SEED is a toolkit designed to help museums create holistically sustainable museum exhibits. The guide is based on "Three Pillars of Sustainability for Museums," considerations based on environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability, and provides multiple examples of how a museum might reasonably adjust their practices to incorporate these pillars. Many museums across the globe has since developed and shared their own guidelines for sustainability in museums. The Madison Children's Museum in Madison, WI developed their own "green guide" for sustainable museum practice; their green initiatives in sustainable materials, community outreach, and museum programming led them to become the first Wisconsin museum to receive LEED certification.

Discussions within museums about environmental sustainability began in the 1990s and have continued to grow. Green museums are receiving a lot of attention from academia and the mass media. Some scholars believe that a focus on sustainability is a way for museums to be relevant in the 21st century.However, most conventional museums are not engaged in sustainable practices.

The green museum movement began in science and children's museums. Science museums found that environmental advocacy and education fit easily within their missions and programming. Children's museums saw that using green design in their inside environments created a healthy playground for their young visitors. Once sustainability became a topic of discussion in museum circles, zoos and aquariums realized that their existing missions and programming of species conservation was in essence sustainable education. Recently, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums revised its accreditation standards to include a requirement of environmental advocacy.

With the green museum movement beginning in children's museums, The Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, Illinois, became the first LEED certified children's museum on October 3, 2005, when it received a Silver certification. The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY became the first LEED certified green museum in 2008, followed by The Brooklyn Children's Museum, who achieved the LEED Silver certification in 2010. In addition, this museum used rapidly renewable and recycled features such as bamboo and recycled rubber flooring to construct the building as well as used photovoltaics to generate electricity. Other good examples of green museums include The Boston Children's Museum who earned a LEED Gold certification in 2007, and Pittsburgh Children's Museum, who received a LEED Silver certification in 2006.

Science museums and zoos were quick to follow children's museums in the green movement. One of the first science museums to adopt green initiatives was ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, which was the first LEED certified building in Vermont. The Natural History Museum of Utah is another museum that has taken charge in the green museum movement. The Rio Tinto Center of the museum has been certified with a Gold LEED Certificate.

Zoos and botanical gardens have also become leaders in the green museum field. The Denver Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, and Cincinnati Zoo all received Green Awards at the 2011 Association of Zoos and Aquariums conference. The Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens was given a LEED silver certification for its new Welcome Center, which "is designed to evoke the geometry of the historic glass houses behind it." It has 11,000 square feet of lobby, ticketing, gift shop, and cafe space with a 34 ft high glass dome that is insulated to control glare and heat. Architects partially built the structure into the terrain, with 14th feet of usable space below ground. It was determined that by doing this, Phipps would save 40-50% of annual energy costs compared with an entirely above ground structure, and demonstrated that sustainable design could be created in ways that were still sympathetic to historic settings. Phipps will also be opening the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, which will house a center for education, research, and administration. It is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012, and is planned to exceed the LEED platinum certification, and achieve the Living Building Challenge. Art museums are now also joining the movement. The Grand Rapids Art Museum became the world's first LEED certified art museum complex in 2008 when it received LEED Gold certification, with such innovative features as a heat recovery ventilator, CO2 sensors, and on site grey water reuse.

One specific example of a green museum is The Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio. In 2007, the institution redefined its mission statement to focus on informing the public about conservation. As part of its mission, the Toledo Zoo committed to green construction, which was shown in the parking lot renovation project. The main parking lot was redesigned in order to increase parking capacity and aid traffic flow, and the project incorporated green elements such as rain gardens and reusing concrete. The renovation also included a residential-sized wind turbine and three solar panels to power the ticket booths at the park's entrance. The wind-turbine and solar panels generate 3600 kilowatt hours per year, which can be redirected into the zoo's main power grid when the booths are not in use and reduce the zoo's carbon footprint by 5600 pounds annually.

Another project at the Toledo Zoo is the Solar Walk, which opened in November 2010 and includes over 1400 solar panels that produce 104,000 kilowatt hours per year, the same amount of energy used by ten typical homes in Ohio. The Toledo Zoo and the Solar Walk's design team wanted the project to be a visual reminder to all zoo visitors and traffic from nearby highway of the zoo's commitment to conservation. In order to accomplish the project, the Toledo Zoo turned to a local companies, and used funds from private contributions and an energy grant from ODOD to cover the $14,750,000 price.Also, The Toledo Zoo, in keeping with their mission statement, included informational panels on how the Solar Walk works and the amount of energy produced to date, so that visitors can be informed on the conservational value of the project. The Solar Walk will reduce the Zoo's carbon footprint by over 75 metric tons each year, which is equivalent to 15 medium-sized cars. The Toledo Zoo has further committed to incorporate green construction into its building plans through geothermal wells, environmentally friendly insulation and other renewable energy and green construction materials.

During the lockdown, more and more museums around the world are offering digital tours online: they could be virtual tours, live guided tours or even tours accompanied by a robot. For many, with museums closed, these opportunities provide access to a world of content from the safety and comfort of their homes. For others, it would be even better to calibrate them to meet human needs. Both virtual and real experiences hosted by the museums, in fact, have something in common: their visitors’ needs are always the same, online and live. For this reason issues such as cognitive bias, learning accessibility and universal design principles, that take into account visitors’ behaviours and motivations, are key factors for any effective experience. 

What is your purpose? Do you want visitors to learn more about the significance of the works of art? Do you want them to have fun? Do you want to involve people who don’t usually attend museums? Do you want them to discover new strategies to approach artworks or to critically question their role as audience?

If you notice, the objectives of the virtual tours offered by museums are rarely made explicit and most of the time it doesn’t seem to be clear to the museum either. This generates a dissonance that makes it impossible to find coherence between visitors’ gestures and expectations. The most evident example: is a visit in which the artworks can be focused hardly will certainly not allow to deepen their value from the point of view of art history even if they could improve the interest for museums’ routes and architecture: in any case, it would be enough to know. As for the objective, it is a widespread misconception to think that a virtual visit could tempt you into actual attendance if you’re not already intrinsically motivated. Take a walk on “Google Street”: albeit there are some places in the world you would like to visit, it will not be because you simulated a walk through their virtual streets that your desire wil increase. 

Tip: set clear goals and share your intention with your visitors on the website to orient their path and understanding. 

In the last few weeks I have interviewed people with different interests and experience, and while the research is empirical, it leads me to think that those who appreciate virtual tours are usually people of medium cultural level, used to visit museums; they are used to traditional approaches of visit for which the interpretation is not open, the visit is passive and does not raise other questions. In other words, for them the museum is only a space where specific and in-depth content is offered in relation to the objects, especially for artworks. The choice to discover the museum from home is often motivated by their desire to learn something new, to see places already visited in the past, to deepen their knowledge or to see unexpected details, hoping to be surprised. 

Generally, visits especially when they are autonomous, as in virtual tours, tend not to last longer than what is considered the average concentrated attention span of about 7-10

minutes. In this sense, time should be observed following a qualitative and unprejudiced approach but more hooks to renew involvement and time would need to be included. About this topic, John Veverka (an expert in heritage interpretation), reminds us that a visit is not simply a matter of going from A to B, but of accompanying the visitor through the discovery of different and overlapping sensations and stimuli. In contrast, for many of the existing virtual tours the experience is nothing more than getting lost in a flat space, like a computer screen, unless it provides different strategies for interaction: the interface should be able to accommodate differentiated learning styles, to end up useful both in terms of accessibility and attention renewal. The opportunity to build connections and paths made by different types of stimuli and interactivity (music or perhaps open questions could be some examples) would increase engagement as well. 

Tip: Facilitate your visit by offering different learning approaches, diversifying the contents and disciplines, developing your interpretation broadly as a strategy. 

Expectations change according to the experience. As a museologist, for example, starting from the awareness that the museum is a learning device through which, hypothetically, everything is possible, I expect the spectrum of possibility to be further enriched by the online visit. 

Google Art has done a lot in this area and produced extraordinary results, especially when it suggests observation strategies beyond focusing only on content, as for example in the case of the Vermeer’s Milkmaid painting on the Rijksmuseum’s website. 

Life, of course, is easier if you are Google, but it’s not so much about resources as it is about learning objectives. In this case, in fact, the museum is suggesting the implicit

acquisition of skills which could turn out useful also in the real visit, as John Berger teaches in his famous book “Ways of seeing”. Moreover, the objective is clear and partly shifts from the more traditional proposal anchored to contemplation, effective only for a small number of visitors. 

What I would like to see: more strategies and suggestions for the visit which people can then use in the real world and more references to current issues and pop experiences: if the museum is a real space, why should the virtual try to simulate it badly? Maybe this is an opportunity to bring virtually back the Mona Lisa to Italy? Or even: could we finally talk with visitors about museology and history of collections? 

Peoples needs are always the same (Online and Offline) 

Lidwell, Holden and Butler, in their fundamental book “Universal Principle of Design” (2012) talk about the importance of addressing a “hierarchy of needs” in good design: in order to achieve the goals we have set, we must be sure that we have responded first and foremost to the basic needs. Using Maslow’s most famous scale, it is therefore a question of imagining a pyramid that develops from the bottom upwards able to meet people’s basic needs before satisfying higher level’s ones. As it relates to our topic it would mean to structure devices that at the most basic level include functionality (they should work), reliability (they should work well), usability (they should be easy to use), proficiency (they should enable people to do something better), creativity (they should enable people to envision something new) at the highest level of the pyramid. 

Tip: involve the whole staff with the question “What levels does our virtual tour reach?”, urging critical analysis and self-observation; test your virtual experience with different users, use UX and accessibility checklists or create your own.

Again, Veverka reminds us that to understand a part, you need to know the whole thing first. Try to think of a book: if the index was missing, wouldn’t you feel lost? Some of

 the virtual tours (especially those guided in real time) place our user experience at a predetermined starting point without clearly sharing a larger picture or destination. While in a real visit, one can guess the approximate size of the museum, or the possible route one would take (often thanks to a map), in the virtual visit these references are often missing completely. Sometimes the museum map is not even available online, which makes the experience more like a maze than anything else. This key concept should obviously not be confused with the Principle of progressive disclosure which suggests to provide only the relevant information at a given time without overloading the recipient. 

Tip: for any museum tours, especially those facilitated by a guide, allow visitors to always have a map available to frame the entire route from the beginning.

Tip: facilitate your visit by offering different learning approaches, diversifying the contents and disciplines, developing your interpretation broadly as a strategy. 

In a text still considered a classic in the field (Intrinsic Motivation in Museums: Why Does One Want to Learn?, 1999), Csikszentmihalyi and Hermanson described the flow experience as the optimal status that allows the visitor to feel completely involved and concentrated in the visit. According to their model, the flow is an intense and positive propensity to learning that occurs when we have just the right skills to face the challenges we meet. If our skills are higher than the challenges we get bored; if the proposal is too challenging, we end up anxious. In addition to the clear correspondence between skills and actions required, other aspects necessary for the activation of the

flow (and fatigue strength) should be: 1. clear objectives and defined rules 2. immediate unambiguous feedback 3. a positive state of mind 4. a sense of discovery and challenge, and no less important of all 5. intrinsic motivation. Some authors, such as neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf, say that since the digital age our flow experiences are inevitably compromised. She refers purely to reading, but I believe that this consideration can also apply to museums. Having said that, referring to flow as an ideal goal remains a good reminder for any projects audience-oriented. 

Tip: as people have different abilities, knowledge and previous experience, make sure that your online experience offers multiple levels of access and allows you to perform different tasks. 

It all depends on motivation. If visitors online and in person are first motivated by the idea of living a pleasant experience, maybe with company, even online we should meet the same expectations. The truth, as Tiina Roppola tells us, is that the museum experience responds in a multidimensional way to different needs that can be simultaneously educational, exceptional, social, leisure oriented or many others. 

Stephen Bitgood, a psychologist who has written a lot about the museum environment and its impact on visitors, describes motivation as a cognitive-emotional state to be strictly evaluated in a complex framework including the amount of perceived work and the number and intensity of distractions (2002). Motivation is powerful, not only because, when intrinsic, it is the key to activate the experience of the flow, but also because it allows us to overcome barriers. If I really want to do a virtual tour I will make every effort to understand how the computer works even if it is the first time I turn it on (of course, provided that this barrier is not impassable). Many hope that the virtual visit is a

worthwhile invitation to motivate non-visitors to go there: I have no data about it, but personally I doubt that those who have never been passionate about museums would become so now, unless the virtual experience is able to activate the construction of personal meanings. 

Tip: offer a friendly experience, involve the visitors offering a range of free-choice activities, support their own construction of personal meanings by engaging them and asking questions (as well as their opinion). 

As we mentioned in the case of the flow, there are many factors that limit our attention, especially if our motivation is not high. The Principle of Cost – Benefit is always valid: we will take an action only if we perceive that its benefits are equal or superior to the efforts. For example it can change a lot if we interact from a phone or a computer: the size of the screen has an impact on our effort, inversely proportional to accessibility. Moreover, if the attention is not stimulated (as it could be by an interactive activity or through the alternation of different learning styles) so many disturbing factors that can limit involvement, including things as simple as the table or work environment around the computer is in disorder. For facilitating attention, virtual visits (as well as the real ones) must be built with the importance of rhythm and timing in mind. For example, several authors, (including Falk, Koran, Dierking, & Dreblow, 1985) made clear that attention decreases over time: for this reason, if we assume visits of fixed duration, at least from the second half of the visit we should implement different strategies from the initial ones, just to avoid tiredness and fatigue. 

Tip: as Susan M. Weinschenk (2011) suggests “if you must hold attention longer than 7–10 minutes, introduce new information or a break”.

Autonomy: You have to know how to manage it 

On virtual tours visitors often rejoice in autonomy. As on Google Street they can move freely in space, but generally the euphoria fades away soon because the experience is always the same: after 10 minutes the experience doesn’t keep them engaged enough and boredom sets in. Unless they have a specific and personal interest to go deeper, their autonomy is limited because their actions cannot generate significant consequences. 

On the other hand, allowing visitors to make too many choices independently risks paralyzing them, as happens in those pages that offer too many resources (but even in this case there are many pros and cons). Once again it is about the flow theory.

Tip: facilitate the visitor’s experience by sharing with them some strategies or suggestions for the visit, according to their interests, expectations and time available. 

Of course, many considerations are still open. Above all, it is important to remember that there are no absolute solutions: everything lies in the quality and human-centred approach with which each proposal is structured. As was stated at the beginning of this analysis, human needs are the same whether the means of delivery are live or online, but on the contrary people may not always be the same, as they may experience the same visit more than once and perceive (and behave) differently each time. 

Other key issues to consider certainly remain: how to solicit social interactions between visitors, themselves or their families, how to build long-term relationships between the museum and visitors and above all how to expand research on this investigation. This last point, more than the others, deserves an in-depth examination especially with regard to the formative evaluations necessary to implement a product that tailors its function and satisfaction to the experience of different users.  There are many relevant projects that already allow us to approach the digital content of museums without virtuosity, especially when, as museums, we do not have the resources or skills to do so. But of course we also need new ideas, revealing the potential of this field, spreading new ways of interaction and also new interpretative approaches. Just remember to always ask for feedback from your visitors: they may seem to be only virtual people and instead they are not.

Do virtual tours in museums meet the real needs of the public? Observations and tips from a visitor.

I nostri musei messi al confronto con i visitatori: oggetti, opere, allestimenti. Testi. Architetture, ovviamente. Proposte educative: visite guidate, workshop, laboratori. Qualcuno nelle sale che ti ricorda di non usare il flash, sedute sparse nelle sale e i bagni in fondo a destra.

La prima domanda è sempre la stessa: che cos’è il museo? E se la risposta cambia a seconda dei suoi scopi (ben oltre anche i tradizionali concetti di tutela, valorizzazione, fruizione), un dato che emerge in modo diffuso, fisico persino, è la compresenza di parti che si sommano senza integrarsi. L’accezione positiva della parola contraddizione, in questo caso, ne assume i connotati dell’ambiguità: quella articolazione del falso che rifugge la norma (così come è permesso e spesso richiesto all’arte) si accompagna frequentemente ad una disconnessione di pratiche che, pure sovrapponibili, dovrebbero essere guidate dalla trasparenza di finalità condivise.

A dire, dunque, ben venga la provocazione che disarticola, ma solo quando dettata dalla volontà sperimentale di chi persegue un’indagine. Quella di chi si interroga e cerca risposte possibili, cercando di contenere (o tuttalpiù argomentare) i propri pregiudizi, a prescindere che riguardino le questioni espositive o, addirittura, gli stessi visitatori: questo è ciò che servirebbe.
 
La riflessione sempre più insistente, ancorché corretta, sulle modalità per il coinvolgimento dei pubblici museali rappresenta un dibattito aperto; la proposizione di strategie educative efficaci, complesse, non ovvie, una sfida che trae spunti da un portato culturale ben più ampio maturato, altrove, già qualche decennio fa. In Italia però, pare che in pochi abbiano deciso di occuparsi di quel che rimane nello scarto di un sovrapporsi comunicativo rivolto ai visitatori, nella consapevolezza mancata (seppure teoricamente sdoganata e implicita) per cui tutto comunica. In pochi credono di averne le risorse umane e economiche o forse, più semplicemente, si nascondono dietro scuse banali.

IRTH إرث, Padiglione Arabia Saudita alla 18ima Mostra Internazionale di Architettura - La Biennale di Venezia, Venezia. Foto: Venice Documentation Project

Il confronto più eloquente appare essere, di nuovo, quello fra curatela ed educazione in un dialogo tuttavia irrisolto che si nutre (anche) di gerarchie che affondano nell’immaginario comune: educare pare sempre cosa da maestre, tanto che la questione di genere, pure rintracciata nelle importanti riflessioni del duplice volume Documenta 12 Education, permane come un tratto distintivo della disciplina. E se nelle pratiche finalizzate all’apprendimento pare resistere un approccio di tipo affermativo (rispondente ad un museo tradizionale e non certamente di rottura) che pure tenta di aprirsi a nuovi audience, all’interno del sistema curatoriale, gli imprevisti concessi ad una traccia di tipo estetico tentano di fare propria la tanto citata “svolta educativa” (the educational turn) secondo la quale l’attenzione alle esigenze del visitatore si trasforma in un elemento da tenere in ferma considerazione. Curatela ed educazione sono dunque così due discipline che si rincorrono: spesso lungo linee parallele, però.

Nella definizione delle scelte, ci sarebbero molti discorsi da affrontare sulla scorta di una collaborazione rigorosa, a partire da un prospettiva di tipo sociale come quella indagata dal social design, ad esempio: dalle questioni legate ai temi dell’interpretazione (le didascalie in primis), all’articolazione dello spazio per il rinnovo della motivazione cognitiva; dalla riflessione sui tempi di attenzione dei visitatori a tutti i temi connessi all’orientamento dello spazio espositivo. Tutte questioni, queste e altre, ritenute marginali eppure valide per ogni tipologia di museo, rispetto alle quali la letteratura italiana è pressoché inesistente, così come pochi i modelli di riferimento.

Musei, musei, musei: cambiano le città, eppure le sale si ripetono. Si ripetono gli allestimenti, si ripetono le proposte. Spesso anche nelle mostre. Tutto procede in fila, ordinario. La stessa logica dei libri stampati in un percorso a tre dimensioni. Perché ci sono le mostre, ci sono i musei e poi ci sono le attività educative. Dopo, sempre successivamente. Perché se l’educazione museale, a prescindere dal rigore delle singole proposte, include solo attività basate sul confronto umano e relazionale, viene da chiedersi a chi spetta la mediazione di contenuti che pure mirano allo stesso scopo di facilitare coinvolgimento, e successivamente, comprensione all’interno dei percorsi espositivi?

Si tratta di un ambito che ha bisogno di nuove formule per le quali non si possono dettare soluzioni standardizzate, per quanto il modello di formulazioni alte sia già stato tracciato da diverse esperienze.

Questioni legate all’audience development e ai visitors studies, evidentemente: ambiti rispetto ai quali emergono anche da noi nomi e competenze ma che raramente trovano lo spazio necessario (nazionale, istituzionale) in virtù del loro portato di sapere. Per accorgersene basta andare per musei. E se questa affermazione pare tradire arroganza è solo in virtù di un desiderato ribaltamento dei ruoli e delle relazioni (paritarie, basate sul reciproco ascolto) così come dei metodi e dei processi (eclettici e user-oriented).

Viene da domandarsi di nuovo, qui come in altre pagine, perché in generale quella cura nutrita di ricerca, che restituisce rigore dei contenuti, non debba essere supportata da pari qualità di tipo comunicativo e dunque educativo.

Si tratta di un ambito che ha bisogno di nuove formule per le quali non si possono dettare soluzioni standardizzate, per quanto il modello di formulazioni alte sia già stato tracciato da diverse esperienze. Occorrerebbe saperne di modelli e strategie di apprendimento, di accessibilità (soprattutto cognitiva), di semiotica, di psicologia dei visitatori e molto altro avendolo imparato possibilmente in modo non convenzionale. Altrimenti, come già scritto da altri, si rischierà di riproporre sempre le stesse formule: la linearità, come insegna la pratica anglosassone, resta un pregio (soprattutto nei testi) ma nella definizione di tutto ciò che è relazione deve essere in grado di giustificarsi appieno in un discorso che fa del principio d’eccezione la regola.

Ragionare su una mostra o su un museo ovviamente è cosa molto diversa, ma alcuni aspetti possono essere rinvenuti in entrambi i modelli. Un discorso per il quale nessuna esperienza esclude l’altra: l’approccio white cube, ad esempio, esprime una sua profonda ragione d’essere ma non deve rimanere il riferimento dominante solo nelle ragioni della sua presunta, allorquando non banale, semplificazione.

Alcuni esempi: una mostra che ti fa tornare indietro su se stessa, riattraversandola, e non perché ne si sia studiato il flusso. Esperienze che ambiscono a confermare quel dato di ricerca per il quale la visita è soprattutto fatto sociale e poi ne non facilitano le relazioni umane nella pratica. Un allestimento che non tiene il ritmo, ma non per scelta, semplicemente perché si fa così: oggetti su oggetti, simili, diversi, uno sull’altro con le loro didascalie mute. Uno via l’altra, il criterio più semplice quello cronologico: dove si soffermeranno gli occhi?

Island Weather, Padiglione Filippine alla 58ima Mostra Internazionale d'Arte - La Biennale di Venezia, Venezia. Per gentile concessione di: © Commissione Nazionale per le Arti e la Cultura (NCCA)

Postazioni video, interviste lunghe o altre proposte per le quali prendersi del tempo, senza neppure una seduta: come vincere la fatica del corpo come suggerito dall’imprescindibile piramide di Maslow (citata persino nelle recenti linee guida sulla comunicazione pubblicate dal MIBACT)? Percorsi tematici definiti a partire dalla strutturazione rigida di categorie: il museo è in grado di assumersi appieno la responsabilità di tracce dalle quali sarà difficile uscire?

Questi e moltissimi altri esempi che diversi studi di autori (come Robert Gifford o Stephen Bitgood) sistematizzano all’interno di possibili cornici e approcci diversi. John Vevrvka, esperto americano di interpretazione, suggerisce ad esempio una matrice che inquadra l’interesse intrinseco dei pubblici rispetto al potenziale attivo/passivo della mostra e degli stessi visitatori. E, se da un lato, questo stesso interesse mette in luce possibili indicazioni (ad esempio: un oggetto originale può presentare maggiore interesse intrinseco rispetto ad una replica) dall’altro, basta dimenticare il valore imprescindibile di una riflessione olistica e complessa perché una mostra altamente interattiva rischi di generare una sensazione bulimica e improduttiva di overwhelming.

L’uomo razionale – il visitatore razionale – certamente non esiste. Più studi, anche in ambito museale, l’hanno confermato: non è detto che il visitatore seguirà la sequenza (o si approprierà delle informazioni) secondo le ipotesi degli ideatori, come spesso ci ricorda un esperto di visitors studies come John Falk ma, anche in questo caso, la consapevolezza dovrà rimanere aperta sulle possibili variabili, tenendo conto del riferimento ad una psicologia del possibile che in campo museale, soprattutto, ci insegnerebbe ad evitare l’ingenuità di certe scelte.

Come desiderare che i visitatori siano attenti, che leggano tutto (perché dare informazioni che non ci serve che sappiano?); che rimangano composti, zitti, fedeli, se poi non ne facilitiamo le azioni? Li distraiamo senza reticenza per poi lamentarcene in continuazione; per accusarli di ignoranza e, allo stesso tempo, continuare a ripetere che il museo deve essere un luogo scevro da pregiudizi. In questo senso, forse anche quell’ambito di recente indagine che è il nundging, in virtù della sua indagine sui rinforzi positivi, potrebbe offrire utili spunti di ricerca.

Nella più recente pratica anglofona, per esempio, molte delle scelte allestitive sono giustificate, se non a parole, in un portato di evidenza spiazzante che pure riesce a non risultare ovvio. Certamente questa è solo una delle strade possibili per quanto capace di raccontare molto della propria consapevolezza e, al contempo, insistere sulla formazione di una competenza critica degli elementi di un contesto il cui valore però, non è affatto secondario. Fa dunque della trasparenza una approccio, lo stesso per il quale, se agli studenti spieghiamo il perché dei metodi scelti, gli studenti imparano di più, come testimoniato dallo studio di Stacey Salazar e restituito all’interno della conferenza Perspectives on Art Education, New York, 2014 (ben inteso che per capire se gli studenti hanno davvero imparato occorrerà comunque chiederglielo).

Le risposte possibili possono essere rintracciate negli approcci di una museologia ibrida che cerca di percorrere nuove strade[...], smascherandone le complessità allo scopo di formare una competenza critica diffusa.

Fornire solo informazioni rispetto ai contenuti, d’altronde, tradisce anche un debolezza intrinseca: dimostra che i musei sono fatti soprattutto da storici dell’arte. Si parla sempre e solo delle opere: eppure in molti vorrebbero saperne anche di altro. Ma non è sempre questione di essere espliciti, a tutto aggiungere il sottotesto di una didascalia: la mancanza di formule nuove, sperimentali, fa sì che fra i pubblici raramente presi in considerazione ci siano proprio i professionisti museali più interessati alle questioni di metodo per i quali sarebbe auspicabile che ogni museo, ogni mostra, fossero in grado di offrirsi quale opportunità per l’aggiornamento costante.

L’attivazione di un nuovo sistema di pensiero, la moltiplicazione delle formule di accesso, dovrebbe essere comunque un elemento imprescindibile. Non possiamo pretendere che tutti i musei scelgano la traccia di quell’urgenza politica definita dalla Hooper Greenhill nella definizione di post-museo: un luogo “di dubbio, controversia e democrazia culturale” la cui comunicazione è “dialogante e polivocale” o anche propria delle pratiche di rottura messe in luce nella recente volume di Claire Bishop, Radical Museology. Sarebbe certamente importante ma sono passi che necessitano forse di un tempo di rielaborazione culturale, da attraversare anche nel nostro paese, che le faccia proprie.

Nel frattempo, nella compresenza di consapevolezze diverse, sarebbe necessaria mantenere salda quell’idea di un museo capace di sollecitare domande, avendo ben chiare le potenzialità dei propri impatti: nelle complessità di pubblici (persone) differenti ai quali proporre altrettanti piani di lettura, qualificati e qualificanti in tutte le loro ambizioni L’urgenza al cambiamento civico e sociale, propria di ogni epoca, ci obbliga ad interrogarci sul possibile contributo di ognuno in termini di obiettivi calibrati: nell’apprendimento, nei comportamenti, nello stato emotivo. Le risposte possibili possono essere rintracciate negli approcci di una museologia ibrida che cerca di percorrere nuove strade (persino oltre gli approcci storici e tematici), smascherandone le complessità allo scopo di formare una competenza critica diffusa.

Il museo, correttamente interrogato, può ambire a diventare metafora di molti altri sistemi di comunicazione e inclusione, così come ci insegnano indubbiamente anche certi esempi italiani. Più in generale, però, continuiamo a muoverci sulla scorta di discorsi nuovi ancorati a sistemi vecchi e prova ne sono tutte le formazioni dietro la cattedra che insegnano l’importanza dell’apprendimento attivo. Forse è arrivato il momento di ripartire dal chiederci tutti cosa intendiamo davvero per educazione museale cercando di guardare assieme ai bisogni di una collettività e di un museo che cambia. Bene la storia dell’arte, il valore che ci sottopongono gli oggetti, la storia che ci raccontano le scoperte scientifiche, ma tocca a noi metterle in bilico, scardinarle, contribuendo così a farne davvero uno strumento utile e, in alcuni casi, anche meravigliosamente inutile insieme.

Il social design fra educazione e curatela museale.

Progettare per le persone: allestimenti accessibili è il primo di una serie di corsi brevi organizzati da We Exhibit, pensato per chi desidera approfondire i temi dell'exhibition design e allinearsi alle prospettive più attuali dell’accessibilità.

Questa prima formazione, in programma a Venezia dal 14 al 16 febbraio, ha come obiettivo principale quello di fornire competenze e strumenti per progettare percorsi espositivi fluidi: allestimenti capaci di garantire un’esperienza di visita coinvolgente e accessibile a quante più persone possibili. Non si tratta soltanto di rendere accessibili gli spazi a persone con disabilità: l’approccio adottato è ampio e mira a interrogare tutte le barriere allo scopo di progettare soluzioni efficaci e creative. Parlare di design degli spazi significa immaginare contesti in grado di accogliere in modo naturale ogni individuo, integrando sempre anche usabilità e qualità estetica.

Durante i tre giorni si affronteranno i principi teorici dell’exhibition design e si imparerà a comprendere le esigenze dei visitatori attraverso percorsi espositivi articolati. Le scelte di allestimento, quali che siano, devono essere in grado di rivolgersi a più persone in contemporanea, diversificando le soluzioni e le strategie, secondo approcci che rispondano soprattutto ai principi dell’inclusive design.


Il percorso formativo comprende anche momenti di esercitazione e di confronto tra i partecipanti, dove le competenze acquisite potranno essere messe in pratica attraverso simulazioni di progetto. L’idea è di offrire tre giorni immersivi in cui confrontarsi con le pratiche e metterne a fuoco le difficoltà e le sfide. Inoltre, le occasioni conviviali come aperitivi e cene, saranno fondamentali per favorire lo scambio di idee e la creazione di nuove connessioni, permettendo di costruire una rete di contatti utili anche per il proprio sviluppo professionale.

Per scoprire tutto il programma delle tre giornate e degli interventi che si terranno, consulta online la brochure completa del corso.

Progettare per le persone Allestimenti accessibili_Brochure_Corso.pdf

Abbiamo pensato di avviare questo percorso formativo per offrire l’opportunità di arricchire le proprie competenze al confronto con alcune figure e organizzazioni considerate fra le più rilevanti ad oggi, e non solo nel panorama italiano. Per Progettare per le persone: allestimenti accessibili, avremo il piacere di avere con noi Fabio Fornasari - direttore scientifico del Museo Tolomeo di Bologna e curatore della Collezione di Design per il Museo Tattile statale Omero (Ancona); Matteo Schubert - socio fondatore di Alterstudio Partners, docente di Exhibit Design e Interior Design pressa la NABA (Milano); Maria Chiara Ciaccheri - museologa, esperta in accessibilità e interpretazione, collabora con We Exhibit; Alexandra Verdeil - esperta di inclusive design e socia di Tactile Studio (Berlin); e Nicolas D’Oronzio - fondatore e direttore creativo di We Exhibit. 
Inoltre, interverranno Babet Trevisan (Responsabile del Museo e delle Manifestazioni Culturali, Fondazione Querini Stampalia) e Alexia Boro (Direttrice Procuratie Vecchie - The Home of The Human Safety Net).

La Fondazione Querini Stampalia, The Home of The Human Safety Net e Palazzo Michiel ospiteranno i momenti di formazione, offrendo ai partecipanti la possibilità di esplorare contesti culturali diversi, ma sempre in sintonia con i temi del corso. Queste realtà, uniche nella loro offerta culturale e didattica sia a Venezia che a livello nazionale, hanno già collaborato con noi diverse volte e condividono il nostro impegno su queste tematiche. Siamo sicuri che la loro esperienza e competenza porteranno un vero valore aggiunto, rendendo il corso ancora più ricco e interessante.

Fondazione Querini Stampalia

La Querini Stampalia è tra le più antiche Fondazioni culturali italiane. 
Nel 1868 Giovanni Querini Stampalia fonda per testamento un’istituzione con il compito di “promuovere il culto dei buoni studi, e delle utili discipline”. 
È la vocazione sempre attuale della Fondazione: essere un luogo di ricerca e formazione, d’incontro e confronto, di crescita personale e diffusione della conoscenza. 
È una realtà culturale unica a Venezia, dove antico e moderno, passato e presente sono in continua relazione: nelle raccolte d’arte del Museo, nella suggestione degli innesti architettonici contemporanei e del giardino, nel fascino della Biblioteca, nelle mostre e negli eventi organizzati. 
È un progetto guidato dalla convinzione che la cultura possa offrire gli strumenti critici per decifrare la realtà in movimento e per compiere delle scelte da cittadini consapevoli.  
Muove dal compito, che lo Statuto assegna alla Querini, di conservare il patrimonio ricevuto, per coltivarne il potenziale di novità, in un processo laboratoriale di produzione culturale.

Visita Fondazione Querini Stampalia

The Home of The Human Safety Net

Situata all'interno delle Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco, The Home of The Human Safety Net è uno spazio aperto al pubblico che ospita programmi e attività dedicate ai temi dell’innovazione sociale  con la mostra interattiva permanente “A World of POtential”, le mostre temporanee dell’Art Studio e un calendario di eventi e laboratori per tutti. 
Questo luogo speciale, nel cuore di Venezia, è la casa di un movimento di persone che aiutano persone, attivo in 26 Paesi a supporto di famiglie vulnerabili e rifugiati, attraverso una rete di individui, organizzazioni e istituzioni impegnate nei temi dello sviluppo e dell'inclusione sociale.

Visita The Home of The Human Safety Net

Palazzo Michiel

Situato sul lato nord del Canal Grande, Palazzo Michiel del Brusà ospita gli headquarters di ECC Italy, la sede italiana dell'European Cultural Centre (ECC), un’organizzazione non-profit con sede principale nei Paesi Bassi, impegnata nella promozione della cultura tramite scambi internazionali. 
Questo iconico palazzo veneziano, con il suo ricco patrimonio storico e artistico, è un punto di riferimento per attività artistiche, ospitando conferenze, workshop ed eventi culturali. 
L'edificio è rinomato per il suo caratteristico balcone gotico, un capolavoro architettonico risalente al XV secolo. All'interno, gli ambienti sono impreziositi dagli splendidi affreschi di Jacopo Guarana, celebre pittore veneziano famoso per il suo stile decorativo Rococò.

Visita Palazzo Michiel

Il corso è rivolto a professionistə del settore museale, architettə, designer e a chiunque desideri approfondire questi temi. In risposta alle numerose richieste ricevute, abbiamo deciso di mettere a disposizione un numero limitato di posti aggiuntivi. La quota di partecipazione varia a seconda della modalità di iscrizione. Alla fine del corso, verrà rilasciato un attestato di partecipazione che certifica le competenze acquisite e i materiali didattici saranno disponibili in formato digitale per un utilizzo successivo. 

In un contesto in cui l'exhibit design affronta sfide complesse come digitalizzazione, accessibilità, interpretazione e sostenibilità, la formazione diventa essenziale. 
Abbiamo deciso di offrire corsi di formazione perché crediamo fortemente nella qualità delle esperienze espositive, che può essere raggiunta solo quando le persone coinvolte nella progettazione sviluppano una sensibilità verso questi temi e ne riconoscono il valore. 
Investire nella formazione significa non solo migliorare il presente, ma anche plasmare il futuro dell'exhibit design, mantenendo le mostre come spazi di apprendimento e confronto. 
È un atto di responsabilità verso la comunità culturale, per rendere i musei più accessibili e coinvolgenti.

E per chi non potrà partecipare all'edizione di febbraio, ci saranno altre opportunità in futuro: basta iscriversi alla newsletter di We Exhibit per rimanere aggiornati sulle prossime date e iniziative.

*L’immagine di copertina è stata scattata @Berlin Global Exhibition presso Humboldt Forum (Berlino)

Progettare per le persone: allestimenti accessibili

The museum world is undergoing a profound transformation, where accessibility, sustainability, and innovation are becoming increasingly central to meeting the needs of an evolving audience. In this context, We Exhibit announces the launch of a dedicated training area with tailored programs designed for those working in the cultural sector, aimed at providing practical tools and strategic skills to tackle new challenges.

We Exhibit announces the launch of a dedicated training area with tailored programs designed for those working in the cultural sector, aimed at providing practical tools and strategic skills to address new challenges.

Contemporary museums are facing challenges that require continuous updates and operational skills aligned with global developments, debates, and issues. Drawing on years of experience with Italian and international museums and organizations, We Exhibit offers innovative and practical programs. The approach is "hands-on," allowing participants to directly experiment with methods, skills, and tools, while interacting with recognized professionals. Emphasis on design and the process accompanying the development of solutions is considered the foundational premise of each program, starting with a critical understanding of content and perspectives. The ultimate goal is to improve museum skills, promoting greater awareness and cohesion. The training is aimed at both individuals and organizations.

These topics offer an opportunity to explore what's happening in the sector, with courses that delve into current and emerging trends in the international museum debate.

- Accessible Exhibit Design: Visitors' itineraries must ensure the highest quality experience for as many people as possible. This goal can be achieved by adopting a set of requirements that maximize clarity, usability, and also aesthetics.

- Disruptive Interpretation: Current interpretive methods challenge established paradigms to broaden the participation of the target audience. Starting with a series of questions about the function and impact of museum texts, the course will analyze the most effective strategies to promote audience engagement.

- Lighting Design: Lighting is a fundamental element of exhibit design, as it affects the perception of artworks and the use of spaces. The course teaches how to design lighting systems that are functional, sustainable, and capable of enhancing the displayed works.

- Visitor Experience Design: Focused on analyzing visitor behavior and how museum design can improve the visitor experience, this course provides tools to map the visitor journey, identifying critical points and opportunities to increase audience engagement and satisfaction.

- Queering the Museum: A program that explores how museums apply perspectives and approaches from gender and queer studies. It discusses ways to make exhibitions more accessible and representative, engaging LGBTQ+ associations and activist experiences. The aim is to challenge dominant narratives and propose interpretive strategies that naturally integrate diverse emotional and sexual experiences.

These courses promote innovation, sustainability, and creative solutions, offering ways to improve accessibility and the visitor experience, even with limited resources.

We Exhibit's courses alternate between theory and practice, with the goal of providing skills that are useful in daily work and design. By involving recognized professionals and experts, the training programs aim to provide a solid theoretical foundation to systematize disciplinary complexities. This introduction lays the groundwork for workshops that balance the skills learned with the experience of each participant, facilitating active exchange. The courses also offer convivial opportunities for discussion, as well as the chance to engage with different organizations during in-person sessions, held in the unique setting of Venice.

We Exhibit adopts a practical and innovative approach to training, combining theory and practice to make both professionals and the institutions they work for more dynamic, accessible, and capable of addressing contemporary challenges. A distinctive feature is the workshop-based nature of the courses: participants engage in exercises related to real or simulated projects, guided by professionals and experts. In courses aimed at institutions, in addition to the training, We Exhibit integrates consultancy to facilitate medium- to long-term operational changes, helping to apply the knowledge and skills learned to daily practice.

This setup reflects We Exhibit's philosophy, which firmly believes that learning happens through direct experience.

We Exhibit offers customizable training packages for museums, combining training and consultancy to promote medium- to long-term operational changes. These packages include training modules, workshops, online lessons, and personalized consultancy, adaptable to the specific needs of each institution. The offering is flexible and modular, allowing organizations to select courses based on their goals. The packages can be delivered in person or online, engaging staff and fostering internal cohesion. Post-course consultancy may involve revising museum policies and adopting international standards.

A new training program for museums and cultural sector professionals

Al museo, patrimoni materiali e immateriali sono costantemente soggetti alle interpretazioni dei visitatori, da intendersi quali soggetti attivi, portatori di esperienze e competenze proprie che determinano la rielaborazione di significati ogni volta diversi. La consapevolezza di questa libertà interpretativa non deve però farci desistere nello sforzo di veicolare percezioni complesse e il più possibili neutrali su persone e gruppi a rischio di esclusione sociale rappresentati, direttamente o indirettamente, al museo.

Viviamo di stereotipi sugli altri, percezioni rassicuranti e approssimative acquisite sulla base di un sentire comune. Le etichette che associamo comunemente alle persone sono una pretesa banale che riduce la complessità degli individui che ne sono oggetto (o vittima) ad uno o pochi aggettivi. Immagini degli altri che contribuiscono a plasmare, al contrario, l’identità che vorremmo fosse a noi associata; a farci sentire parte di quelle comunità che, neppure sempre unite, oppongono loro resistenza.  Certe etichette possono essere facilmente intuibili: sono i migranti, gli omosessuali, i rom, ad esempio, ma possono anche essere più subdole, socialmente meno significative o pretenziosamente innocue, come quelle che considerano in modo omogeneo i visitatori che, al museo, giocano a farsi i selfie. Puntare il dito contro un insieme, presumendolo compatto, significa comunque ribadire ad altri (sempre gli altri) la differenza della nostra presunta correttezza.  C’è sempre una normalità attesa e un confine giusto che delimita chi siamo. Quando esplicitiamo la nostra distanza da un gruppo, o addirittura il disaccordo, in genere, ci appelliamo all’incapacità altrui di scelta: avrebbero potuto non venire in Italia, avrebbero potuto scattarsi le foto in montagna. Opposizioni rispetto alle quali sembra facile definire i margini (e dunque i rischi) perché spesso dichiarate, visibili. Eppure resistono stereotipi ai quali non sentiamo, come società civile, di poter esplicitare liberamente l’aderenza: uno di questi, eppure reale, è certamente associato alla disabilità. 

Per retaggio culturale e prossimità inevitabile (fosse anche solo una proiezione del nostro futuro) la disabilità ci è comunque vicina: con un occhio cerchiamo di non vederla, con l’altro ci soffermiamo curiosi. Comprendere la storia della disabilità in Italia, in questo senso, è centrale. Uno snodo significativo si verifica nel Novecento con lo sviluppo di nuove politiche e forme associative che diventano di riferimento. Le racconta bene il libro Storia della disabilità (Schianchi, 2012), ribadendo in più punti come nel nostro paese sia tuttora assente un insegnamento dedicato ai disability studies, critico e diffuso, capace di promuovere nuovi fronti della percezione in grado di incidere sui tabù. Come la disabilità incroci, a oggi, i temi del museo è storia sempre più nota e recente, vòlta principalmente all’abbattimento delle barriere fisiche, sensoriali e cognitive: pratiche e opportunità di confronto teorico che, via via, cercano di colmare uno scarto con altri paesi, contribuendo (lentamente) a fare dell’accessibilità museale una disciplina vera a propria anche da noi. Quello che allo stato attuale delle cose, tuttavia, merita un’azione più risoluta sono i presupposti stereotipati che una rappresentazione distorta o assente della disabilità al museo può contribuire a rafforzare. 

La riflessione su come il museo possa veicolare il senso dell’identità di gruppi sociali diversi, per tutti coloro che hanno dimestichezza con la museologia contemporanea, rappresenta un tema indagato da decenni, soprattutto nello sviluppo di competenze di tipo interculturale. 

In questo senso, alla stregua di una riflessione anche di natura antropologica, la museologia si è interrogata in più casi sulla parzialità di esposizioni che raccontano la diversità culturale da punti di vista incapaci di mettersi in dialogo con i soggetti delle loro narrazioni.

Un esempio macroscopico è quello descritto da Ivan Karp, curatore della sezione di African Ethnology presso il Museum of Natural History di Washington DC, che esplicita i rischi connessi a una comunicazione inevitabile anche quando implicita: è appunto il caso del museo citato, dove, fino al 2000, le sale riservate alle culture africane erano situate alla fine dell’area dedicata all’era delle glaciazioni. La scelta era motivata da ragioni di tipo logistico, e coinvolgeva due sezioni progettate da dipartimenti diversi a 15 anni l’una dall’altra ma che lasciavano intendere – le segnalazioni erano state proprio dei visitatori – come nella scala dell’evoluzione culturale quella africana (nel diorama di una popolazione namibiana degli anni ‘50) seguisse direttamente l’uomo di Neanderthal. Un equivoco intollerabile per qualsiasi istituzione che pretenda di essere autorevole. 

Gli esempi di questo tipo sarebbero migliaia perché nessun museo può dirsi neutrale. Consapevoli però delle responsabilità associate, si tratta di ipotizzare soluzioni per contenerne i rischi, esplicitandone il filtro, moltiplicando i punti di vista connessi al patrimonio materiale e immateriale, allargando e differenziando la base di chi definisce i contenuti. 

Il tema della rappresentazione è dunque sempre più centrale, quantomeno laddove il consenso sulle finalità del museo risulta condiviso da tutti i livelli, a iniziare da quelli che ne detengono la leadership. Anche nell’ultima edizione di TrendsWatch, la pubblicazione annuale che traccia le tendenze in atto nel settore museale, questo aspetto emerge come trainante soprattutto associato a questioni culturali e di genere. 

Se degli aspetti connessi alla mancata o distorta narrazione di gruppi identificati come omogenei e a rischio di pregiudizio si è detto rispetto agli ambiti dell’informazione, del cinema, della pubblicità, troppo poco si è riflettuto sulle specificità museali, soprattutto con riferimento al significato simbolico di un’istituzione che pretendiamo sappia descriverci tutti in modo complesso, sulla scorta di un controllo, anche in questo caso, quantomeno di tipo rappresentativo. 

In riferimento agli studi sulla rappresentazione al museo il portavoce più autorevole resta indubbiamente il Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) dell’Università di Leicester, che da anni promuove ricerche approfondite sul tema, con un focus specifico sulla disabilità. Sul sito del centro di ricerca è possibile scaricare molte delle indagini dedicate agli impatti generati dalle percezioni elaborate dai visitatori. Fra le finalità attese, ricorrente è il tema che mira alla promozione della giustizia sociale attraverso pratiche che sappiano fare della disabilità, nell’esempio specifico, un tema trasversale di comprensione capace di emergere sia nella proposizione dei contenuti delle opere (moltissime, anche storiche, quelle invisibili eppure esistenti sul tema) o nel coinvolgimento diretto di artisti o di personale museale con disabilità. 

Nulla su di noi senza di noi , del resto, è uno slogan nato negli anni ‘90 negli Stati Uniti all’interno di movimento attivista afroamericano per la disabilità. Un richiamo forte che, valido per qualsiasi istanza di correttezza sociale, richiama alle necessità di coinvolgimento diretto delle persone che in prima persona ne rivendicano i diritti. 

Per retaggio culturale e prossimità inevitabile [...] la disabilità ci è comunque vicina: con un occhio cerchiamo di non vederla, con l’altro ci soffermiamo curiosi.

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Progettare per le persone: allestimenti accessibili

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