Thursday June 20th, at 11.30amexactly forty years after Presidential Decree 563/1984 which included the National Library of Potenza in the list of state public libraries, the Official inauguration ceremony of the Potenza Library Center in the headquarters in via Don Minozziwhich also included the Provincial Library of Potenza, as foreseen by the Memorandum of Understanding between MiBACT, the Basilicata Region and the Province of Potenza signed on 29 November 2017.
The Ceremony program, reserved for representatives of the institutions and partners of the Library Centre, it includes various moments, aimed at highlighting the role that this new cultural, social and educational garrison of the Lucanian capital has achieved in a few years, after the opening which took place in the midst of the pandemic.
The day will continue in the afternoon, starting from 4.00 pm, with the first edition of the Library Center Festival, open to all citizens, with guided tours, readings for children edited by the volunteers of the Nati per Leggere e program the musical performance at sunset (6.30 pm) by an ensemble of the 131 Symphony Orchestra of Basilicata.
The ceremony will be opened by a greeting from Luigi Catalani, Director of the National Library of Potenza and of the Potenza Library Centre.
Giampaolo D’Andrea, President of the National Association for the Interests of Southern Italy, Enrico Spera, Director of the Building and Heritage Office and of the Culture Office of the Province of Potenza and Antonio Curcio, Library Officer at the University of Calabria and member of the ‘Libraries and sustainable development observatory of the Italian Library Association, will focus on Library Center intended as a model of inter-institutional agreement for the integration of cultural services, urban regeneration and sustainable development.
Will follow thenaming of the Lucanian Hall of the Library Center after Teresa Motta (Potenza, 1890–1953), with the interventions of Margherita Perretti, President of the Equal Opportunities Commission of the Basilicata Region and Antonella Trombone, Professor at the Department of Humanistic Research and Innovation of the University of Bari Aldo Moro and author of the volume Teresa Motta: a librarian and “a year of memorable events”, in which he described the history of librarian who between 1938 and 1943 opened the doors of the Provincial Library of Potenza to numerous internees for political or racial reasons (foreign Jews, anti-fascist politicians and intellectuals including Franco Venturi and Manlio Rossi Doria), despite the fact that in 1942 the Italian government had banned “persons of non-Aryan races” from entering government public libraries.
The interventions by Marco Di Geronimo, great-great-grandson of Orazio Gavioli, and Gerardo Sassano (Volumezero), landscape architect, will introduce theinauguration of the Gardens of the Library Center created as part of the project “The library en plein air” and the exhibition of the manuscript specimen of the Synopsis florae lucanae, the work of the doctor and botanist Orazio Gavioli (Potenza, 1871–1944) e of the herbariums that inspired the creation of the gardens.
On this occasion, the relaunch of the SBN Polo (National Library Service) of the Basilicata Region will also be communicated, by virtue of Regional Resolution 27/2024 which entrusted its technical-scientific coordination to the National Library of Potenza, and the launch of the Project digitization of cultural heritage with PNRR funds.
Luigina Tomay, Superintendent of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Basilicata and Regional Secretary of the Ministry of Culture for Basilicata, and Michele Busciolano, Director of the Office for Digital Administration of the Basilicata Region, will talk about it.
After the intervention of theartist Nino Tricarico, author of the works donated to the National Library of Potenza and set up in a permanent exhibition in the new Mediterranean Room, Raffaele Nigro, writer and journalist, Vincenzo Mario Lombardi, Archival and Bibliographic Superintendent of Basilicata and Raffaele Vitulli, President of Basilicata Creativa, cluster of the cultural and creative industries of Basilicata, will speak on the matter to the donation of the notable book and archival collection of the author of The Fires of Basento to the National Library of Potenza.
At the end there will be institutional greetings from:
- Christian Giordano, President of the Province of Potenza,
- Vito Bardi, President of the Basilicata Region,
- Paola Passarelli, General Director of the General Directorate of Libraries and Copyright of the Ministry of Culture.
Info and reservations for afternoon guided tours at no. 0971 394211 or to the email address [email protected].
Below are the posters with the details.
