The Education Department
The Education Department of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo offers educational and training programs focusing on different ways of approaching contemporary art. The Foundation’s ongoing, varied and multi-layered exhibiting activity is a unique occasion to introduce different aspects of artistic creation and develop creative thought, a sense of observation, and a critical approach to contemporary culture. In recent years the Department has intensified work with senior high school institutes, promoting series of meetings that focus on approaching contemporary art. The work we have carried out with liberal arts colleges and senior high schools is essential, and is formally recognized by the Ministry of Public Education, with which Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo established a convention in May 2005. The agreement allows the Foundation to issue course credits to students who attend the
activities. Each year, around 20.000 children, young people, university students,
teachers and families are involved in the Department’s activities.
Schools
Kindergarten and primary school
Facing the artwork: the group visits a selection of exhibited works, which are seen as texts to be read with the help of dialogue and play, or as documents to interpret, searching for signs of the contemporary
world.
Workshop: a place to individually develop the suggestions and inspiration gathered when facing the artwork. Sessions focus on comprehension and experimentation with different codes and languages of contemporary art. This allows children to directly experience the creative process. Themes are adapted to suit the participants’ age group: sign and form, matter and senses, portrait and self-portrait, the space of living and its representation, photography and the moving image.
Junior and Senior High School
Preliminary sessions are aimed at students, and focus on approaching contemporary art. The program includes a historical-theoretical introduction and a workshop with practical activities.
The museum at school: contemporary art history lessons, starting from the works of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection. Reflections on the roles of the museum, the relationship between artworks, the
cultural context that produced them, the environment in which they exist, and the meanings they refer to. Trying to interpret the works in the Collection is also an opportunity for students to produce theses and research work, and for teachers to collect materials for their lessons.
Workshop
Workshops are moments of study, research, development and interaction with exhibitions and artists. They take place inside the exhibition space, in direct contact with the artworks. They are addressed to senior high school and art school students, academies, university courses and post-graduates, and aim to create opportunities for exploring the artist’s vision, reflecting on the exhibition themes with the languages of contemporary art that are closer to the sensibility of young people, and starting a research work that can be documented and circulated.
The 3-day workshops are organized as follows:
• historical and theoretical introduction to the exhibition, meeting with the curators
• debate and feedback exchange
• group work and development of themes
• presentation of results to the public in open event
• focus group for testing
All the activities take place inside the exhibition space, during opening hours, thus
facilitating direct interaction with visitors.
