The Education Department of Castello di Rivoli is involved in various research projects to
encourage access to the Museum for all audiences.
From the collaboration with the Istituto dei Sordi di Torino (Turin Institute for the Deaf) arises the
first experiment in Italy dedicated to a meeting between the world of deafness and contemporary
art: the starting point has been the linguistic research, to enrich Italian sign language with 80
specific terms that were still lacking. At the end of the process, the first Contemporary art
dictionary in Italian Sign Language was published in 2010 (Umberto Allemandi & C.). The dictionary
is the only one of its kind in the world, and after the road show in leading contemporary art
museums around Italy and a number of papers given in international conferences, in 2011 the
project was presented in New York, at the MoMA and Istituto Italiano di Cultura during the Italian
Culture in the World week.
A collaboration is also active with the Unione Italiana Ciechi e Ipovedenti (Italian Union for the
Blind and Partially Sighted), with which a series of multisensorial visits were arranged at the
Castello and in the Permanent Collection. From June 2012, models of the Castello di Rivoli made
by the studio of Arch. Andrea Bruno, responsible for the restoration of the entire architectural
complex of the Castello, are available to all visitors at the Museum, sighted or not.
The Education Department also works with the CPD Consulta Persone in Difficoltà in Turin (a
charity serving the disabled community), organising activities for the International Day of Persons
with Disabilities and promoting opportunities for meeting and discussion, including the
culturaccessibile (accessible culture) round table, which drew up a Manifesto for accessible culture
for all, and promotes joint initiatives to reaffirm the right to equal access to places of culture for
everyone.
