The Education Department

What is our role?
We believe that a museum is a place for cultural growth, discovery, debate, integration and social inclusion. We see it as a place that is open to the city and the world. We want it to be a place of fun and joy, a place for falling in love.
Everyone is entitled to their cultural heritage, but it is a right that needs to be won by demolishing all the visible and invistible barriers standing in its way.
Article 9 in the Italian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights both proclaim that right, and so we in the Education Department work to open up the museum’s doors, to make it accessible to the largest possible number of people.

What do we do?
We offer free tours and in-depth exploration and explanation to adults, children, individuals and families (Brera tells its own story).
We are looking for new ways of reaching out to you (#breraunaltrastoria and #raccontamibrera, soon to be joined by… starting to feel curious now, are you?.
We devote specific projects to schools of various kinds (Discovering Brera, I Want Brera Too).
We coordinate the dissemination activities of official museum services licencee (Aster) and also share in the educational activities of the Associazione Amici di Brera (The Museum, a Resource for Schools).

PINACOTECA DI BRERA EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

The Education Department staff work to promote the museum as an educational environment with its own specific features, and to make it accessible to as broad a range and large a number of people as possible.
The staff, comprising the Pinacoteca di Brera’s own qualified personnel, holds free workshops and tours (included in the price of admission) from Thursday to Saturday every month:
BRERA SI RACCONTA: discovering the Pinacoteca and its collections.
• ITINERARIES on Saturday, offering the visitor a chance to explore the Pinacoteca di Brera’s collections in depth and detail.
• ITINERARIES–WORKSHOPS, on Saturday afternoon, for children aged five to twelve, designed to get youngsters hooked on the world of art and the museum.
• HALF AN HOUR WITH… short public lectures on works and artists in the Pinacoteca are held to mark temporary exhibitions.

WHAT THE AMICI DI BRERA DO

The Associazione Amici di Brera e dei Musei Milanesi, founded in 1926 to support the Pinacoteca di Brera and to familiarise the public with its art heritage, offers tours for many different kinds of audiences.
• FOR ADULTS: guided tours of Brera in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish. Tours can focus on the more important masterpieces or explore a limited number of specifically requested works in greater depth.
FOR SCHOOLS:
• KINDERGARTEN: programmes involving a guided tour of the Pinacoteca to discover a “museum” and what it means, followed by in-depth exploration of the issues addressed in the tour in a purpose-built workshop.
• PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL: a guided tour including the distribution of educational material to each student reflecting the itinerary chosen by the teacher.
• SENIOR SCHOOLS AND HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES: in addition to boosting students’ awareness of, and familiarity with, their cultural heritage, tours offer them tools for exploring and understanding the many different aspects of the phenomenon called “art”.
• REFRESHER COURSE ENTITLED “THE MUSEUM, A RESOURCE FOR SCHOOLS”: the Associazione has been holding a refresher course for lower and upper secondary school teachers for the past 17 years. The course is officially recognised by the Regional Education Office. The course and the material handed out during it are completely free of charge and the lessons are held by experts in art history and in education.

WHAT ASTER DOES

Aster specialises in educational services for museums and runs the guiding and educational assistance facilities at the Pinacoteca di Brera.
It offers tours and workshops for schools, exploring some of the issues addressed in various disciplines in the school curriculum in greater depth and “in the field”. All of its educational activities are coordinated with the Pinacoteca di Brera’s Education Department, which ensures that all content is correct and all of the gallery’s specific features are respected.
• FOR ADULTS: guided tours of the museum’s collection help to foster expertise and provide tools for interpretation to enrich each visitor’s personal cultural experience.
• FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS: tours taking in the museum collections’ most significant works, in addition to guided walks to explore the various institutions housed in the Palazzo di Brera and the various conservation, research and dissemination activities that they perform; also, themed tours for lower and upper secondary schools, as well as workshops in the classroom on colour, portrait painting, landscape painting and food in art.