Italian Language in the Gallery

The Making of Modern Italy: Art and Design in the early 1960s (Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art between, 29 January-7^th April 2019) curated by Giuliana Pieri, offered the opportunity to organize a series of language activities with schools and universities which were aimed at helping students to develop their oral and speaking skills in an engaging way and in an inspiring and multi-stimuli location.

The exhibition allowed students to interact with a variety of objects that symbolize the cultural identity of a specific and exciting period, the 1960s. The presence of different media such as photos, interior design objects, graphic design creations, magazines, ceramics, and clothing helped students to contextualize the information given to them in an object-based rather than exclusively text-based environment. The aim of these educational activities was multifaceted. First of all, the display facilitated the students’ understanding of this crucial period of Italian history, especially in term of the strong interdisciplinary connection between social and economic changes and the role of design. The Olivetti typewriter, which was part of the exhibition, for example, stimulated reflections on how working habits changed over the last 60 years and how the duo of functionality and aesthetics offered by Italian design contributed to the Italian economic leadership during that decade. The panoramic approach of the exhibition, with a selection of objects that identified various artistic expressions of the period, helped students to frame the role of Italian design which is all too often misunderstood.

The pilot project was conceived as a way to offer students the opportunity to train their oral skills, since the gallery visit was conducted entirely in Italian. Students were able to practice their language skills in an engaging context. During every visit, I brought in additional photographic resources, in order to expand the topics covered by the show and to elicit further comparisons. This was aimed at developing the students’ vocabulary with new terms taken from innovative thematic areas such as the economy, design, and fashion. During the visits I gave students a list of terms to help them to follow my gallery talk, stimulate discussion, and to empower intermediate language learners to ask questions. In addition, the interdisciplinary perspective chosen to analyze the period offered students the possibility to discuss the communication strategies of major Italian brands, such as Olivetti, and the influence of new media. From the Vespa scooter and the Olivetti typewriter advertisements to Life magazine photoshoots, students were encouraged to discuss the influence of consumerism and mass-production with the aid of authentic material.

The pilot project ‘Language in the Gallery’ highlighted the importance of visual stimuli for the study of Italian language in order to develop simultaneously students’ oral and speaking skills as well as to offer practical examples for the development of an historical and contextual analysis. Whilst exhibitions are necessarily ephemeral, the pilot project linked to The Making of Modern Italy shows the potential of this type of approach to language learning in the galley context. The next stage is the creation of new resources for A-level and university classrooms related to the Italian cultural heritage, the media and postwar Italian society.