The widespread museum and the social commitment of the GAM
There are five new itineraries developed in parallel with the contents of the web app of the project “La GAM and Palermo: new itineraries and itineraries for a widespread and accessible museum” and allow for in-depth studies with children and young people on important issues that have the city at the center of Palermo and its places in the link with the Gallery of Modern Art. These paths – supported by the call – will be developed according to the different age groups of the participants linked to the partner associations of the Living Lab, through visits and laboratory developments of the themes. The associations involved in a partnership for the realization of the educational activities of this macro-action are the following: Spazio Donna Zen (Handala), Booq, Lisca Bianca and Classici in Strada. From September to February, each association will take part in an activity every month, according to a shared calendar. Each activity lasts 90 minutes.
A Gallery of Modern Art for Palermo: between history and architecture
The itinerary allows you to deepen your knowledge of the history of the Gallery and its intimate link with its city of origin through a historical-architectural approach of discovery of two places in the city that have been and are currently its headquarters. Firstly, the Teatro Politeama Garibaldi, whose story tells of a “very happy Palermo” in which it was born as a place of high culture and also became a key and link in the urban development of the new city and, secondly, the ancient monumental complex of Sant’Anna, a treasure chest of history in a neighborhood with many layers, which also contains Palazzo Bonet, a refined example of Gothic-Catalan residential architecture.
GAM and the Arab-Norman route
The route allows visitors to discover the unique cultural dimension that characterizes the serial site of “Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedrals of Cefalù and Monreale,” inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2015. The unprecedented point of view of this path is given by the knowledge of those iconic monuments of the city of Palermo, which occurs through the gaze of the artists of GAM and is far from the contemporary perception of tourist places. A path for a reflection between past and present about our city, between culture, history, architecture and overtourism.
Palermo told through images
This itinerary allows us to discover the centrality of Palermo in the contents of GAM’s pictorial works. There are many modes and artists that tell the story of Palermo, many glimpses of a city profoundly changed from the 19th century to the present. Palermo and its nature, its mountains, Palermo and its sea, but also its neighborhoods and its monuments will be found in the works and through direct vision it will be possible to perceive its mutations in a constant dialogue with the present.
Great public and monumental sculpture: from GAM to the city
The itinerary allows us to learn about the great sculptors of GAM and their role in the city’s sculpture, as participants in an exceptional season that, through an extraordinary repertoire of public, monumental and decorative sculpture changed the face of the city in parallel with its urban development and historical and social events. An ideal itinerary from the old city to the new one through the axis of Via Libertà-an urbanistic reality and symbol of an era-an open-air sculpture workshop.
GAM and the Sea of Palermo
The itinerary allows visitors to learn about the deep connection that-since its origins-the city of Palermo has developed with its sea, a fundamental element in the city’s life and history. Palermo has been for centuries a city that has based its identity on the sea. The places of the sea have been repeatedly taken up even by the nineteenth-century painters of the Gallery, by virtue of their beauty and grace, which made them the object of artistic contemplation, but also of leisure for the citizens. The seaside hamlets still bear witness to this deep connection and have been the object of interest of landscape painters. Conversely, the itinerary explores the current controversial link with the sea, whose places have been greatly transformed by building speculation, as in the case of Palermo’s southern coast.
EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCES PARTNERS
SPAZIO DONNA ZEN has been open in the ZEN2 neighborhood since 2014 and is a project of the HANDALA association. It is a creative and recreational space open to women in the neighborhood and a reference point for women, girls, and educational and health services in the area.
BOOQ is a neighborhood biblio-workshop in the Kalsa neighborhood created thanks to the social promotion association of the same name in which citizens and associations converge.
CLASSICS IN THE STREET is a network of teachers, educators, schools, universities, associations, and organizations in Palermo that aims to bring classics back among the people, in the streets, in the city’s neighborhoods, even in the forgotten ones, mixing knowledge, experiences, and people.
LISCA BIANCA is a nonprofit organization created to promote the social and labor inclusion of disadvantaged young people through the restoration of the boat of the same name, a symbol of Mediterranean culture and tradition.