I read the news, published by, with great interest Cremona evening, that the Arvedi Buschini Foundation is working on a project for the recovery of the former Tognazzi cinema in Via Verdi with the idea of turning it into a youth gathering center with study spaces, a library and services dedicated to Cremonese children and university. As a candidate for Mayor of the civic list Today for Tomorrow I want not only to express my appreciation for the initiative but I would also like to make a proactive contribution by sharing the proposal of my electoral program dedicated to the recovery of that space. In particular, the idea was born from a recent trip to Florence with my 19-year-old daughter Sira who, at the first point of our itinerary, proposed a visit to Giunti Odeon, on the corner between via degli Anselmi and piazza Strozzi, inaugurated on November 4, 2023. A project that has reborn a historic theater in the Tuscan capital, the Cinema Odeon. Inside it is possible to find a cinema room with 198 seats, two screens that operate during the day and in the evening, and a bookcase that is placed in the auditorium. This space is not only a cinema but also a place where exhibitions, meetings, book presentations, concerts and readings are held. Then there are rooms for study and reading, and a café-restaurant. It’s like a covered, heated square, with comfortable armchairs, tables and chairs available to those who want to work and the wi-fi is free. To enter and stay there, even for hours, an entrance ticket is not required, unless it is late in the evening and it turns into a cinema. The restoration work was promoted by the Germani family, who have managed the cinema since 1936, in collaboration with Giunti Editore.
Why not take inspiration in planning the recovery of the Tognazzi cinema from a highly successful experiment like Giunti Odeon which tells us a lot about the desire to find spaces to live and inhabit especially among young people and which could represent a significant contribution to the relaunch of our historic center ?
That is, the Tognazzi cinema would become, like Odeon Giunti, a community place, where you have a good chance of meeting someone you know or a place to work on the computer or study, a meeting point for boys, girls and families where they can feel part of of a network of needs and services that are the quintessence of any city.
A bold cultural project that I would very much like to find the consensus of those who are thinking of investing in that place but also of the other mayoral candidates of whom I ask their willingness to share this idea by also including it in their program because it would be truly significant to demonstrate to the citizens that on some proposals it is possible to find a broad level of sharing regardless of political orientation with the good of the city as its sole purpose.
Attached are some photos taken by Sira of Odeon Giunti.
