Since October 2011, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi has been offering With Many Voices, a project dedicated to people with Alzheimer’s disease, their families, and caregivers. The goal is to make exhibitions accessible and welcoming for people living with dementia; to offer them the opportunity to express themselves through art by promoting initiatives that value each individual’s communicative abilities and creating situations that foster well-being.
The program is curated by the Education Department of the Foundation, in collaboration with specialized geriatric educators: the multidisciplinary working group designs and conducts each single activity.
The project was the first in Tuscany and one of the first nationwide. Since its inception, With Many Voices has contributed to spreading the culture of accessibility in museums, organizing specific conferences and participating from the beginning in the regional MTA – Musei Toscani per l’Alzheimer system, which now has over 60 member institutions. With Many Voices is part of a broader accessibility program proposed by the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, which grows and renews every year.
Training
Building on this multi-year experience and the comparison with some of the major foreign institutions active in this field, from 2016, Palazzo Strozzi has been offering an intensive training course for museum operators and geriatric operators to share the With Many Voices model and provide the necessary tools and stimuli for creating new projects to be proposed in other museum sites or exhibition centers.
The course can take place at Palazzo Strozzi or at the institution that requests it, with a variable duration and consisting of theoretical and practical moments.
Each reality is then invited to adapt the methodology according to its own context, maintaining some basic principles: the co-presence of professionals from the museum and sociosanitary fields; the valorization of each participant’s communicative abilities; the intent to create cultural initiatives and not therapeutic ones; and fostering a deep relationship with art and cultural heritage.
Building networks
Enrolling in the training course involves joining a network of institutions that share ideas, practices, and discuss possible challenges. During specially organized meetings, a common heritage of experiences and knowledge is built.
Participating institutions in the With Many Voices training course include:
Associazione Familiari Malati di Alzheimer Verona O.D.V. and Musei Civici di Verona (2016)
Palazzo Grassi-Punta della Dogana, Pinault Collection, Venezia (2017 e 2021)
Pro Senectute Ticino e Moesano e Museo Vincenzo Vela, Ligornetto (2017)
Fondazione Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia (2019)
Fondazione RavennAntica (2024)
