„Ci vediamo al museo!“ – A museum experience in Italian

Not just looking at art, but getting to know it better on a guided tour, talking about it, exchanging ideas and improving your Italian at the same time: this is how a visit to a museum becomes an experience for the senses! Welcome to „Ci vediamo al museo!“one of many series of events as part of the cultural education program at the Tyrolean state museums.

In the Tyrolean State Museums with the five houses Ferdinandeum, Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, Hofkirche, Armory and Tirol Panorama with Kaiserjägermuseum offer a colorful and varied supporting program. From themed tours to creative workshops, concerts and lectures to after-work events, there are plenty of exciting things to discover. These interesting program formats fall into the area of cultural mediation, and this is a broad field.

Laura Manfredi has been part of the Cultural mediation team of the Tyrolean Provincial Museums. The Italian is also a visual artist, language trainer, blogger for Innsbruck Tourism and much more. I meet her to find out more about her project „Ci vediamo al museo!“ about her project. The meeting turns into a lively conversation about art and how to communicate it, about languages, training, work tasks and so on and so forth.

Since 2020, Laura has been inviting people once a month to a dialogic guided tour „Ci vediamo al museo!“. This offer is aimed at anyone who would like to improve their Italian language skills (from level A2). Many people in Tyrol are learning Italian as a foreign language and are looking for opportunities for Italian conversation. The museum offer is therefore the ideal complement to language courses. In one hour, Laura guides her group (limited to a maximum of ten participants after registration) through one of the special exhibitions or part of the permanent collections in one of the provincial museums.

In addition to the respective topic, she also teaches new vocabulary, which she writes down on a blackboard. Laura has experience as a language trainer in adult education and explains to me: "It's been proven that you can remember new words better if you not only hear them, but also see them." This makes sense to anyone who has ever tried to learn a language. I am impressed by how conscientiously and professionally Laura prepares her special tours: There are always additional materials for the group to consolidate their knowledge, such as handouts with vocabulary and phrases or a suitable piece of music to listen to. However, it is important that there is time and space for dialog: The participants can and should exchange ideas in Italian. There are often questions about the language, such as how a word is used, whether there is a verb for it, etc. As a native speaker, Laura can provide the best help here and also mediate in linguistic questions.

The format therefore combines the exhibition experience with a language lab, which Laura says is a perfect complement to conventional language courses because the topics covered in the museum are simply different to those in the textbooks. It is also usually the case that people who learn a language are also interested in culture. The guided tours are correspondingly popular: The events are actually always fully booked, even when two rounds of ten people are offered per date. Incidentally, there are also some "regular customers", which in my opinion speaks volumes for Laura's expertise, enthusiasm and charm. To book early, please call +43 512 59489-111 or anmeldung@tiroler-landesmuseen.at is therefore recommended.

The Dates for „Ci vediamo al museo!“ and the Program of the Tiroler Landesmuseen can be viewed online.

To be honest, I am incredibly impressed by this offer and I am really pleased that it is so well received. The more I learn about it from Laura, the more intensely I think to myself: Yes, this really makes language learning fun. And the added value is enormous!

Laura has been in Tyrol for about ten years and I ask her what it was like for her to learn German. Although she speaks German very well, she says: "I'm still learning. Every day." She laughs. "It doesn't stop."
She speaks from the heart, because that's how it is with foreign languages. And even in your mother tongue, you're always learning something new, and it's always exciting to expand your vocabulary and horizons.

Laura Manfredi graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and worked in Italy as an artist, cultural mediator and journalist. She joined a team of conservators at the Tyrolean State Museums to oversee the relocation of the collections to the new Depot in Hall in Tirol in Hall in Tyrol. She worked primarily with objects from the Folk Art Museum and the historical collection of the Armory. She still benefits from this today: "The big advantage is that I simply know these collections and objects very well," she explains.

In cultural mediation, she has been creating concepts for exhibitions and supporting programs for several years. The preparation often begins with the creation of an exhibition in collaboration with the curator. Laura is of course also involved in the implementation, and the field of cultural mediation is really very broad: themed and special tours, creative workshops, supporting programs, special Programs, special offers for children and families and educational museum formats for schoolchildren and students. In addition, there are hall texts, content for the Museum app or for audio guides. The conscious and sensitive use of language is always an important aspect here. Cultural mediation can also be an interactive station in an exhibition, such as a drawing station with instructions. I am fascinated by the versatility and scope of mediation work.

Contact with the audience is what Laura enjoys most about cultural mediation. "Art, in whatever form, is always enriching, I think, " says Laura. However, art is often not "easy " to understand, regardless of whether the work of art is 300 years old or completely modern. You need a bit of information and help or someone to ask questions. And that is precisely the task of cultural mediation.

It's an extremely exciting, important and beautiful thing. Laura puts her heart and soul into it, you can tell. The enthusiasm that is often passed on during guided tours is always what strikes me personally, what "infects" me and carries me away. For me, that is priceless.

Laura also makes art herself - with her sound training and a huge amount of enthusiasm. She works mainly with printing techniques and paper. Her works have already been shown in exhibitions in Italy, Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Serbia, Spain, China, Japan, Korea and America.

Laura owns a printing press for this artistic work. "It's my ballast that keeps me grounded," she says. She continues: "The press weighs 300 kilos. That makes moving really difficult, I'd have to think very carefully about that." The fact that Laura still finds time for her etchings, prints and art projects alongside her full-time job at the Tyrolean State Museums and the numerous blog articles deserves my full admiration and great respect. In her Italian articles for this blog, around 100 in number since 2015 (!), Laura often describes exhibitions and cultural events or provides exciting insights into museum operations.

In recent decades, museums have shed their (often) dusty, even boring image. New forms of presentation, concepts and technical possibilities have contributed to this. Last but not least, personal contact with competent cultural mediators like Laura will always be important, successful and irreplaceable. Thank you for that!

„Ci vediamo al museo!“ is loosely translated as "See you at the museum!" - Yes, why not? Regardless of the language, we should all just go to museums more often and gather new impressions. In any case, I'm determined to do so in the future ..

I would like to thank Laura for the interesting conversations, many insights and for „Ci vediamo al museo!“ in April 2024 through the exhibition „The Museum Game“ by Anna Scalfi Eghenter. It was an experience, even though I unfortunately neither speak nor understand Italian. Thank you.

Termine für „Ci vediamo al museo!“ at the Tyrolean State Museums, Tel. +43 512 59489-111, anmeldung@tiroler-landesmuseen.at, www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at

Blog article by Laura Manfredi
Official homepage by Laura Manfredi
Article about „Ci vediamo al museo!“ in the Tiroler Tageszeitung from 20.08.2023

Cover picture: © Tiroler Landesmuseen