Art Education
Associazione Arte Continua devised an art didactics programme for adults and children in collaboration with cultural associations LaGorà, Active Cultures e Rollercoaster to discover and enhance contemporary art in the Val d'Elsa area.
The aim is to point the way in order to build a bond between community, educational institutions e works of artanyone, from toddlers to adults, will be able to recognise and safeguard the value of that heritage and, for this reason, it was decided to actively involve teachers and students who are convinced that knowledge of their territory and its artistic heritage, both past and contemporary, is the motor for the development of an aware, sensitive, respectful and participating citizenship.
I workshopsrealised in collaboration with the schools of Municipalities of San Gimignano, Colle di Val d'Elsa and Poggibonsihave enabled the students, through guided outdoor tours and in-depth classroom meetings, to come into contact with the work of artists and develop a sensitivity for culture and respect for the environment.
The didactic paths led the children to the discovery of works by Antony Gormley, Kiki Smith, Mimmo Paladino, Anish Kapoor, Ilya Kabakov, Sol LeWitt, Joseph Kosuth, Alberto Garutti and Cai Guo-Qiang scattered throughout the Val d'Elsa region.
I projects of Art education fall within the mission of Associazione Arte Continuawhich has been devoting special attention to the topic for years. of the interconnection between the social and cultural spherescommitted to the promotion of initiatives that make the population able to recognise, appreciate and value the artistic and natural heritage of the area.
LaGorà Association
The social promotion association LaGorà was born in Colle di Val d'Elsa in February 2020 with the aim of creating an intergenerational social network and enhancing the Colle di Val d'Elsa area from a natural, landscape, historical, artistic and human point of view. The name is given by the union of two concepts: the agora (in Greek: ἀγορά, from ἀγείρω = I gather, gathering), a place of meeting and exchange, and the gora, in reference to the artificial canals (dating back to the 13th century) that, receiving the waters of the Elsa river, shaped the territory favouring the development of the town with its factories, mills, paper mills and ironworks.
Lessons in the classroom Photo by Cristiano Mascagni © 2024 LaGorà. All rights reserved.
Lessons in the classroom Photo by Cristiano Mascagni © 2024 LaGorà. All rights reserved.
Visit to Colle di Val d'Elsa Photo by Cristiano Mascagni © 2024 LaGorà. All rights reserved.
Active Cultures Association
Association Active Cultures was established in December 2009. Based in San GimignanoIt exclusively pursues the dissemination of art and culture understood in all its manifestations. Its aims and activities are inspired by principles of equal opportunities between men and women and respect for the inviolable rights of the person. It organises events, workshops and training courses on art and contemporary languages and didactics on UNESCO and public art, aimed at both young people and adults, in the Tuscan region, in cooperation with public and private institutions. It has numerous PCTO agreements with the Liceo Alessandro Volta of Colle Val d'Elsa; with the Liceo Artistico "Duccio di Buoninsegna" of Siena and with the Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore "Roncalli" of Poggibonsi.
Visits with students © 2024 Active Cultures. All rights reserved.
Eightfold Association
L'Eightfold Associationbased at the Fortress of Staggia in Poggibonsi, has been active for over 20 years in the field of art education, promoting educational projects that weave together contemporary art, participatory architecture and active citizenship. Founded and directed by Donatella Bagnoli, the association is recognised for its ability to transform historical places into dynamic educational spaces, involving children, families and local communities in experiential and creative paths.
Among the most significant projects are Make Room Make Room, an art education course revolving around the works of artists such as Antony Gormley, Mimmo Paladino and Kiki Smith, realised as part of the project Art to Art in the territory of Poggibonsi. This project includes classroom workshops, field trips, performances and installations, with the aim of fostering a bond of belonging between the participants and the city .
The Ottovolante Association also takes care of the Educational space for families inside the Rocca di Staggia, offering meetings and workshops for children and parents, providing an original way to learn about local art and heritage.
MAKE ROOM
Making space taking place
Antony Gormley
path of ART DIDACTICS
by the Eightfold Association, project Donatella Bagnoli. Contributors Sergio Pampaloni, Rossella Pelagotti, Mirella Salvadori
Around the works of Antony Gormley/ Mimmo Paladino/ Kiki Smith
ARTE ALL'ARTE project - Poggibonsi territory
Photos/videos by Mirco Frilli (DIGITALMODI) and Rossella Pelagotti
Classroom workshops
Outputs on the territory
Actions/performances/installations around works of art
Workshop meeting between young people and residents of the sheltered residence
Projection of the course with parents
Location : Town Hall Square (Piazza Cavour)
Piazza del Comune opens up before us, a scenic downhill space representing the philosophy of the Tuscans: 'making heaven and earth one' Curzio Malaparte. The Bell Tower touches the sky, on the roof of the Collegiate Church statues surrounded by blue. Do they wish to descend?
The female figure by Antony Gormley, silent passer-by, descending cloud, as shadow the figure gently enters the stones, is mirrored in the windows, dissolves in light and air.
Collected in the square in 2004/05, our route is inspired by the title of the 9th Edition of Arte all'Arte: THE SHAPE OF THE CLOUDS.
White paper clouds animate space. We are the wind that transforms them, they fly, they settle. WHITE CLOUDS ON A STONE SKY.
Le SHADOWS steal the clouds, play with them, BETWEEN EARTH AND SKYI no longer know whether they are cloud, shadow o stone.
MIRRORS as puddles catch the clouds, thanks to the reflection I carry in my heart a friend, a piece of city, one cloud.
I lie on this STONE, are all different. I TAKE SEATShe resembles me and contains me, we belong together. I am part of the city, the city is in me.
Location : railway station / platform 2 piazza Mazzini
Man looks far into the distance.
Beyond the gaze, the elsewhere. Sky.
Clouds rush northwards, an invitation to travel.
Escape of tracks to infinity.
Yellow lines, like trajectories of light, are lost on the horizon.
La human figure by Antony Gormley seems to unravel in trails of light: lights up immensely.
Yellow threads, relational textures, holding thoughts, states of mind. The gaze as one mirror catches trains, people, clouds, to break up into a kaleidoscope.
Location : Medicean Fortress - Cassero
La plan of the Renaissance fortress, commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent has human form. Inspired by plans and drawings by Francesco Di Giorgio Martini, it appears as a man lying downopen to welcome the heavens within.
During the day, it lets itself be crossed by the clouds, at night it is privileged observatory of the stars. Pentagonal shape, evokes a man who becomes a star five-pointed leading the way. He has a shining crown on his head, star-studded, he does bow of a ship ready to set sail in the sea of the firmament.
High on the stern of an imaginary sailing ship the ffemale igura, by Antony Gormleygazes into the distance, melting with nostalgia, evaporating like a cloud, expanding into a flight of birds.
Entering the Fortress by a narrow, dark burrow venturing into a human intestine or a architectural labyrinth, you reach a dome herringbone, belly of a man e rotating galaxysolar plexus. Slowly comes to light and each has its own personal RENAISSANCE.
On paper by set designers, map o carpet, takes place on journey unrolling a thread which is geographical route e light blue paper. Each one combines objects, images, books, bodies with threads of meaning giving life to their own narrative. Each draws the outline of the other, the our templates are constellations, clouds, blueprints of celestial cities.
Location: Medicean Fortress - Cassero
from the SOURCE OF FATE immersed in the mother's womb come into the light in the RENAISSANCE STRENGTH, become sky, become cloud.
Location: Medicean Fortress - Cassero
Entering the 'Cassero', fortified architecture in the shape of man and in the image of the universe, everyone can
live their Renaissance. Moving on from thedarkness of a burrow, to the intensity of thesunlight of the courtyard,
the fortress opens wide to the sky. it is an invitation to expand oneself, experiencing one's own energy in freedom.
Art accompanies us to discover spaces and places, but also to get to know ourselves.
The work of Kiki Smith 'Blue girl' guides us to another vision.
Looking towards theinterioritylook inside, to create a understandingrelational that
requires intimacy. The light of the sunshine becomes the intimacy of light lunar.
Location : Politeama Theatre piazza Rosselli
Poggibonsi: town and inhabitants share a history of destruction e re-construction of itself.
La human figure by Antony Gormley on the threshold of the square expresses a painful recomposition, an assemblage of painful memories and future gazes.
Le OUR ROOTS, sink into the memory, nourishment for a FUTURE CITY. Where everyone can, Italian or foreigner, inhabitant or passer-by, sharing the earth, growing like a plant. Young people plant their feet, take root.
On white paper adhesive tapes, they write the memories of grandparentsgenerational exchange, meeting of stories, of lives, of worlds.
Location: The Staggia River
We are WATER. La human figure by Antony Gormley yes dissolves in reflections on our nature. Man, nature, architecture, city... are water which flows. We are tears, drops, rain, river...
The first place I inhabited was my mother's body.
He made room within himself, making himself a CIOTLE to contain me, SEA to lull me. Now I experience in space the flow of memory and soul.
Location: HB / protected residence
Old hospital, a space for care and welcome, today libraryspace of memory, home of culture.
Next to the Protected Home for the Elderlyfragile, precious caskets of emotional, personal, collective memories.
The 'pieces of life' of the human figure by Antony Gormley are enriched with meaning for the structures around them. They become fragments of memories, tales, stories.
They evoke books with which to build a body that stands like a architecture of words. The book opens like a room, the class is a book full of words.
Le pages flow like a travel.
My hands are a lopen book: 'manography of a lifetime. The pages take flight, flyers in the air.
Sheets/leaves of autumn.
Yellow leaves such as butterflies welcome our thoughts, our words: "pocket book. Le pages-ali they settle on the walls, on the trees, on the little man...
In the meeting with the elderly the pages bloom with messages "I don't know whether they are flowers flying or butterflies blooming" (free translation from the text by Emily Dickinson).
Location: Fairy Spring
The medieval fountain, attributed to Balugano da Crema, is known as the FOUNTAIN OF THE FAIRIES. A definition that recalls the enchantment of the place, the mystery of the architecture, cave, dragon's mouth, dark forest... emphasising the harmonious fusion of art, nature and architecture.
The work of Mimmo Paladino: I DORMIENTI permanently placed in the fountain (open-air museum), reveals its spell. The Fateladies of the dream, reveal to the Humans, gathered on themselves in the foetal position, immersed in water amniotic fluidanother world: unconscious, darkness... guiding us through the passage of the birthcome to light, and in the death.
La Source one does Theatreeach action/understanding of the girls is accompanied by the ancestral music of Brian Eno into which thesound animation of the boys. But who are the Fairies? Healing girls who cradle and heal with a magic cloth the Sleeperso i Crocodiles of the Fountain. A white thread will accompany us on the journey to discover the secret of the Fountain.