Minardi school returns to Minardi school. The symbolic donation ceremony of 4100 euros from the collective exhibition ‘Painters in the mud’, organized by the Bottega Bertaccini, was also an opportunity to formalize the return of the historic institution to the rooms of what was known as Palazzo Battaglini, in via Ughi , where it has been based since 1907. The re-appropriation of its original spaces by the historic artistic institution – founded in 1797, in the midst of the Napoleonic era, at the same time as the Art Gallery, the Manfrediana library and the Torricelli high school, in a period of strong cultural renewal for the city – was strongly supported by both teachers and students, who represent the last in a long line of generations to arrive here to practice in front of plaster casts, anatomical studies and, as has happened again recently, in portraying models live. For some years the school had its headquarters in the building of the ex-Salesians, but the solution – chosen due to the important renovation works considered necessary at the time in via Ughi – did not convince teachers and students, who were fond of the historic headquarters precisely because of the sensation by which you feel enveloped as you walk among the statue depicting Tommaso Minardi, the color palettes, the historic ram’s head on which generations of students have practiced.
The flood dealt the final blow: the Salesians’ books and drawing materials ended up under water. However, the Minardi school has recovered: in the last year there have been around one hundred children and young people enrolled in the courses by their families (therefore independently of their schooling), and around fifteen adults: the total number of students attending the teachers’ lessons – among them Monika Grycko, Filippo Maestroni, Anna Lisa Quarneti – is clearly growing compared to the post-Covid era. To return the entire building to the city, significant resources will be needed: “We will seek the necessary financing”, promised Mayor Isola. In the meantime, the donation made possible by Renzo Bertaccini and the forty-five artists who took part in the collective exhibition made it possible to repurchase some volumes of paintings necessary to replace those overwhelmed by the flood. Enough for the Minardi school to be able to start making plans for the future again: “Next year a sculpture course will be organized again – promises the director of the school Matteo Zauli – and we do not rule out being able to reopen both the west wing to the public than the internal courtyard, perhaps with an exhibition”.
Filippo Donati
