From October 11 to 14, 2022, the first E.D.I Global Forum for Education and Integration was held in Naples, a global event that brought together 150 representatives of prestigious museums and cultural institutions from all continents. In the eyes of the outside observer, a “cultural battalion” to help, from the perspective of art, implement the fourth of the Sustainable Development Goals of the U.N. 2030 Agenda, the one dedicated to quality education. The intense four-day event saw entities and organizations such as MoMA, the Getty Museum, Palazzo Grassi, MAMBo, the Sandretto Re Re Rebaudengo Foundation, the Reina Sofia Museum, the National Gallery of Singapore, the Pinacoteca of Sao Paulo, and many others gather in the city for a dense exchange of ideas on the impact of museums as instruments of well-being and participation.
Through lectures, participatory seminars (more than 40), working groups, and social events that dotted the entire cultural ecosystem of the Neapolitan city and its most striking museum venues: the Museum and Real Bosco of Capodimonte, the Complex of San Domenico Maggiore, Palazzo Corigliano, the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples, the Museum Complex Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco, the Monumental Complex of Sant’Anna dei Lombardi, the Madre Museum, the Royal Palace, the National Archaeological Museum and the Gallerie d’Italia Naples.
John Bock Erdmann, 2022, Fondazione Morra Greco
An impressive, not to say epochal, event with a high level of planning born thanks to the intuition of Maurizio Morra Greco, a dentist, and collector who in 2003 established the Morra Greco Foundation, having its headquarters in the striking Palazzo Caracciolo in Avellino. In the Real Bosco di Capodimonte setting, we asked him what gave rise to this idea. “For some time now, there has been an overdose of exhibitions. On my own, I was thinking about the usefulness of doing something concrete for education, the education of the younger generation, and the public. Putting all the professionals in charge of education in their respective home museums at the center of a forum seemed to me to be a necessary operation.”
Eric Wesley Get Off the Cross We Need the Wood CD player, 2003, Fondazione Morra Greco
Five themes underlie the forum: accessibility and anti-accessibility. Analyzing the design and planning of institutional facilities to encourage the creation of spaces open to different types of audiences; diversity and inclusion, that is, the ways through which cultural institutions can unhinge exclusive, Eurocentric or patriarchal dynamics; sustainability; art and well-being; and the future of institutional facilities, with a focus on the role of educational departments and their strategies. Explains Morra Greco, “We wanted to enhance sapiences that are less obvious than others. E.D.I. global Forum puts the ‘wise part of museums’ at the center, fostering an international comparison among all the departments in charge of education, recognizing their ethical and professional role. From a practical point of view, we are implementing great networking, fostering an important exchange even among international museums that are ‘neighbors’ but had never spoken to each other.”
Jonathan Monk, Sometimes I ask myself why then I remember it isn t my problem, 1997, Fondazione Morra Greco
Do you plan to collaborate with the Italian school system? “Yes. We have started forging relationships with the rectors of universities in Campania.” Of these intense days of work also on cultural patronage, what remains? Many projects are likely to blossom. Reflections. On open spaces-even public places and hospitals-and nature (National Gallery Singapore and Palazzo Grassi; S.M.A. K and the Koln Museumdienst; MoMA and Castello di Rivoli); on the green economy (Kiasma and the Capodimonte Museum and Real Bosco); on play (Kunstenfestivaldesarts and Cittadellarte Foundation); on migrant involvement, social cohesion, inclusion, cultural mediation, democracy and the culture of well-being (Fondazione Morra Greco with Officine Gomitoli – Dedalus Cooperativa Sociale and Multaka; Sao Paulo Art Gallery and MANN; WIELS and Warsaw Museum of Modern Art; Moderna Museet and the Stedelijk Museum); on the border, also understood as a personal border (Reina Sofìa Museum and Museion; Palazzo delle Esposizioni and the Louisiana Museum of Art) on a rethinking of ableism (Argos and O.G.R. – Officine Grandi Riparazioni); on the territory, in this case Naples (MANIFESTA); on the connection between self-care and care of the planet (LUMA Foundation and the Sandretto Re Re Rebaudengo Foundation); on the challenges offered by resource scarcity (Castelbuono Civic Museum and P.A.C.); on giving voice to one’s emotions (M.C.A. Australia and the Pecci Center in Prato); on the museum as a place of memory (Casa Morra); on the rural environment as a place of cultural production (P.A.V.); on adult/child participatory experiences (QAGOMA and Mori Art Museum).
Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio, Big Mama 2004, Fondazione Morra Greco
