A treasure in the city

2024

Thanks to the contribution of Fondazione Cariplo, Viridiana has the opportunity to implement the project “A Treasure in the City”!

Viridiana is the lead organization of the project and boasts as a partner the Social Cooperative Teatro Magro ONLUS, with which it has designed and conceived important actions that it intends to carry out over the next two years.

In addition to the project partner, the collaboration network also includes the Municipality of Asola, the Asola Comprehensive School (under agreement), the Parish of Asola, the Cultural Association “La Quadra,” and the Santa Lucia Cooperative.

The project was submitted for the “Discovering Culture” grant, which aimed to bring children between 7 and 11 years of age closer to places of culture and community.

In the project “A Treasure in the City,” we intend to spread culture and information through animation, fun, but above all through the active participation and involvement of all those who are part of the project: adults who provide information while “wearing new clothes” and engage together with the children, and the younger ones who wear the clothes of adults, becoming themselves providers of culture.

From the experience of educational work in schools of all levels and in families, Cooperativa Viridiana can affirm that many primary school children in our area are not familiar with the cultural and landscape beauties of Asola. Only a minority access the library and museum, and often vulnerable children (those with disabilities and from families in conditions of social hardship) are those who benefit from them even less. The project identifies architectural and landscape works of cultural interest in Asola and proposes for their knowledge the collaboration of the Asola Comprehensive School, Cultural Entities and Associations which, each through their own professionalism and possibilities, collaborate in promoting the project and the active participation of children, organizing workshop activities for different age groups.

Teatro Magro proceeds to organize activities following a specific study of historical characters and architectural monuments that will be presented; Teatro Magro expresses itself in the diffusion of theatrical and artistic practice for the dissemination of critical messages in a direct, never conventional, interactive way.

The Municipality of Asola has collaborated with the cooperative for years as a client of educational services and in the co-planning of workshop and project activities to be carried out for the community. For this project, the municipality has shown enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate to achieve the educational goals and specific objectives identified.

We believe in the collaboration of the school, which has always supported Viridiana in its projects, and in a social network that can make use of everyone’s skills. Educational institutions have the obligation to offer different opportunities to respect the diversity of children; positively valuing the interests and richness of each individual is a virtue of democracy and education.

Chiara Armellini: An Illustrator for Children

The project is also enhanced by the participation of Chiara Armellini, an internationally renowned children’s illustrator. Born in the province of Verona, Chiara studied Graphic Design and Visual Communication at ISIA in Urbino, later perfecting her skills in Paris, Barcelona, and Bologna. Her works, characterized by vibrant colors and natural themes, have been published by important publishers and exhibited in museums around the world.

Teatro Magro’s initiatives for children:

Escape room: 10/26/2024 – ages 6 to 11 – Dear explorers, imagine being catapulted into a past time, where an ancient manuscript has been found, revealing a mystery that you must solve to escape from the ancient rooms. It will be your task to decipher the manuscript and solve a series of puzzles before time runs out. A mystery awaits you among the museum rooms: solve the puzzles and find the way out before it’s too late.

The museum comes to life… characters on stage!: 03/29/2025 – ages 7-11 – Young adventurers, are you ready for a unique experience? At the sound of the bell, the museum characters come to life! The Celtic, Egyptian, Roman, and prehistoric figures will begin to move among the rooms as night falls. You will interact directly with the figures belonging to the Museum to discover mysteries and curiosities. Get ready for the night crossing!