Report on the activities carried out in the year 2021
Heavy conditioning considerations for program implementation due to the difficulties of the health emergency.
The health emergency situation has severely affected the implementation of the program planned for the year. Scheduled appointments and initiatives regarding both scientific activities and events a remained suspended, and work scheduling was also delayed. It was not possible to carry out all the scheduled initiatives concerning:
- celebrations for 1′ 80th anniversary of the sinking of the ship Arandora Star, which carried emigrants from the United Kingdom to Canada,
- The conference on emigration from the municipality of Pescaglia,
- the work of acquiring and studying material on Italian emigration to Africa in the 20-year fascist period.
In addition, the planned series of 6 events for the presentation of the docufilm on Zefirino Poli made by the Cresci Foundation in 2019, the schedule was canceled, as was the case with other projects that involved physical presence such as lectures, book presentations, and meetings with schools.
During these months of lockdown, however, relationships with associations, scholars in the field of emigration studies and Italians in the World have been strengthened through social media, maintained the foundation's presence on Facebook and YouTube.
Efforts were also made to implement the staff training with participation in the online course organized by the Italian Library Association and the Tuscany Region entitled. Wikidata to promote heritage: cultural workers in the open world date.
Activities of the "Museum System of the Province of Lucca" of which the Paolo Cresci Foundation. Performs the function of the leader.
The Cresci Foundation is the leader of the Museum System of the Province of Lucca to which 27 museums in the area belong. The University IMT Scuola Alti Studi Lucca has continued its relations with the Foundation for the implementation of a strategic-financial plan for the efficiency of the network of museums in the province that are members of the System. The projects i this year were oriented on the introduction of innovations of the museum experience through new technologies, it web and social networks. he strategy of the proposed project, in line with the criteria indicated by the Regional Announcement Museum Systems 2020 was to act through the strategic levers of web marketing, information technology, multimedia and social networks to enhance the offer of museum services. This strategic direction certainly did not replace direct experience, which is to be understood as a fundamental approach to immersive museum knowledge. Efforts were made to foster the propensity towards innovative technologies and creation of a new educational and cultural approach projected towards the web community, new storytelling and entertainment of museum content, e.learning of innovative themes, connections to the smart school. A series of individual actions that synergistically constitute an integrative strategy of museum activities, capable of ensuring a better and broader achievement of the cultural mission proper to each museum in the system. The project implemented collaboration with cultural institutes (IMT Alti Studi Lucca) and the other Tuscan museum systems. The expertise of IMT, cutting-edge companies in the field of technological innovation engaged in nationally and internationally renowned cultural and educational projects in the museum sector has been used for the professional training of staff in the field of cultural
digital and of setting up thematic itineraries and remote educational and laboratory activities. The goal 6 was to foster the sustainability of smaller, but often qualifying museums, and of important implications on the communities of reference, which of necessity , end up being disadvantaged, in terms of visibility and organization of services. The project has enabled museums to work in synergy in pursuit of common goals, strengthening marketing efforts to increase the knowability of museum heritage also through the web and social networks. In addition, the training and new project experience will enable a spread of the culture of innovation within the museum system. ICT technologies and the use of web and social channels will make it possible to increase the user base and bring more and more new people closer to the museum realities of the area.
Acquisition of the archives of Carlo Pera
As a result of the donation of a small private archive that belonged to Carlo Pera (an architect, born in Florence, but domiciled in Pisa at the end of the 19th century), it is possible to reconstruct the events of this personage who moved from the Tuscan city to Paris, France, for political reasons, where he joined an anarchist group and became such an activist of the movement that he was arrested and imprisoned.
The archive, consisting of photos, letters, newspaper articles, etc., after various and adventurous vicissitudes, came into the hands of Antoine Poletti, an elderly French C.G.T. activist living in Corsica, who in addition to saving it from certain dispersion has made a gift of it to the Foundation for it to be reorganized and made available to scholars.
Production of a DVD box set of the docufilm The Garfagnana for Astor Piazzolla in On the occasion of the centenary of his birth.
On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of musician Astor Piazzolla, the Paolo Cresci Foundation, under the direction of Abraham Rossi and in collaboration with local broadcaster NOI TV, produced the docu-film Garfagnana for Astor Piazzolla. The film, lasting about 30 minutes, features archival documents, old photos and unpublished accounts in Italy and Argentina with interviews with relatives and acquaintances of the great musician whose maternal ancestors emigrated in the late 19th century from Massa Sassorosso, in the municipality of Villa Collemandina. The film, broadcast by the local broadcaster Noi TV in the column I Colori del Serchio, edited in a box set and circulated in schools and among admirers of the famous musician.
Online library of rare texts on Italian emigration
Digitization of rare tests on emigration for the creation of the Online Library of Emigration History, The library of the Paolo Cresci Foundation holds more than 1,000 volumes specifically dedicated to Italian emigration. These include numerous rare and ancient editions that are practically unobtainable even in specialized libraries. The initiative, the first of its kind in Italy, is enjoying success among scholars and in view of this is being implemented with new accessions.
Organizing the day of cultural initiatives at the provincial ethnographic museum Don Luigi Pellegrini of San Pellegrino in Alpe.
As part of the activities promoted by the Museum Paolo Cresci, as leader of the Territorial Museum System of the Province of Lucca, organized at the Don Luigi Pellegrini Provincial Ethnographic Museum in San Pellegrino in Alpe a day of cultural initiatives that brought together four museums in the area. Theatrical texts, scientific contributions, readings and dramatizations, an educational exhibition, etc. were presented.
Digitization of the photographic archive of Sergio Scali
The project aimed to digitize the photographic archive of Sergio Scali an important Lucchese entrepreneur in the building and road construction sector who emigrated to Venezuela in 1946. It consists mainly of photos documenting work done in over
50 years of activity first in the field of topographical surveys, then in the field of road construction and finally in the construction of large infrastructures (airports, bridges, etc.). and own. The size of the archive 6 the following: Over 400 black and white photographs and about 50 paper documents. Also important 6 is the presence in the archive of images documenting the daily moments of work in inhospitable environments such as the jungle and those related to social promotion with it achievement of awards and certificates, relations with the highest offices of the Venezuelan government.
Studies and research aimed at publishing the volume on Italian emigration in Michigan by Nicoletta Franchi Collins
Professor Nicoletta Franchi is completing a volume that presents unpublished documentation on Lucchese emigration to North America, and in particular to Michigan, where, in the mining town of Calumet, a serious episode occurred on Christmas night 1913 in which many Italian emigrants died. The massacre, in which many women and children lost their lives, was part of the background of the harsh union clashes of the copper mining workers, in
strike for the improvement of working conditions and pay. II work was based on unpublished material found in America and in the historical archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome.
Museum expansion
Despite the slow pace due to bureaucratic delays in the offices of the Province of
Lucca, the owner of the building where the museum is located, regarding the availability of space for the new installation, preliminary work was carried out aimed at the project. These consisted of the preparation of texts, iconographic research and graphic and video processing; technical aspects on safety regulations for working environments were also addressed, with specific reference to the museum's premises, which are housed in a building subject to the constraints of the Cultural Heritage Code.
Exhibition set up and presentation of the Round and round...play it world
Publication of the book Round and round...play it world, with unpublished material on children's play in the past from the archives of the Paolo Cresci Foundation for the History of Italian Emigration. The documentation 6 the result of Paolo Cresci's several years of research work, made possible through the acquisition of family correspondence and frequenting antiquarian bookstores, Italian and foreign collectors. What has been collected is integrated with many documents on emigration, the main theme of his scholarly activity, because frequently the two research paths intertwine: many of the pictures, sent from abroad to relatives in Italy, in fact depict children with toys, just as toys are mentioned in letters on the occasion of Christmas, with references to desired gifts.
The book presents some of the Cresci Foundation's material on games: about 200 vintage photographs, as well as postcards, prints and various manuscripts. Unpublished documentation related to a subject that has received, in recent years, only modest attention from scholars of both anthropology and the history of photography. Accompanying the images, the text analyzes the anthropological aspects of the subject, in the case of images related to emigration, on their role in reducing the detachment caused by remoteness and telling stories of children torn between the culture of the nation of origin and that of which they have become part.
The book is aimed at two groups of readers: those of advanced age so that, without any nostalgia, in these faded images of children they will remember moments and loved ones of their childhood, but especially young people so that they will discover, beyond mere curiosity, the anthropological significance ei children's games of the past, so important in the formative process of entire generations. A value that must not be lost that can help us orient ourselves in the culture of play today, but also in that of contemporary society.
New edition of the MUSEOEMIGRATIONITALIAN.ORG website.
The need to update the site's software has been an opportunity to restructure and enrich it, thanks to the activation of collaborations with the Centro Studi Emigrazioni in Rome and the Centro Altre Italie of the Agnelli Foundation in Turin, so that it can become an indispensable point of reference for those dealing with the history of Italian emigration.