The Children’s Museum 

During the last evening guided tour dedicated to the El Greco exhibition, a little girl showed up, bringing her whole family along: parents and uncles. A few weeks earlier, she had participated with her school in one of the workshops that our educational department offers every day to primary and secondary school classes. She had been so happy with the experience that she insisted her mother and father return with her. If one of the museum’s missions is to educate about beauty and nourish the eyes of the little ones with history and values, Gaia’s enthusiasm is, for us, a great success to be displayed proudly.  

It is often said that children are “the audience of tomorrow.” No, I believe that children are the audience of today. Why postpone enthusiasm and participation until maturity when it is we who should draw inspiration and vitality from their transparent gaze? With over 6,000 children visiting our museum each year, we certainly have the responsibility to offer an experience they can remember, but most importantly, we need to learn from them what we ourselves have forgotten.  

Years ago, during a visit to a Lucio Fontana exhibition held at a famous Swiss museum, I remember that when an educator asked what, in their opinion, passed through the “slashes” Fontana made on the canvas, one child answered simply: “imagination.” Well, I don’t know how many adults would have answered with such visionary insight, which was also motivated by the artist’s gesture and thought, which precisely alluded to this, projecting the contingent into an immaterial, invisible, sacred dimension.  

Since then, I have never been able to explain Fontana’s art without that instinctive answer in my mind. This is the reason why the museum belongs to children. Not for their future. But for ours.