Elena Nencini
Francesca Masi had assumed the role of director of the RavennAntica Foundation just under a month ago when on the night of May 17th a phone call led her to transform Classis – Museum of the City and Territory into a reception hub for those who had to abandon their homes due to the flood.
Masi, what do you remember of those days?
«I remember the beauty of offering a museum open at night to the people who arrived. I think that museums should be like hospitals because they not only treat but prevent. Already in the early hours of dawn people arrived and, upon entering the museum, they changed their gaze: from that initial fear they calmed down, they looked around curiously because a beautiful place is good for the soul. The museum has returned to life all day, it has returned to being a factory that produces hospitality.
It was the greatest emotion of my life.”
How did you decide to open the museum for displaced people?
«On impulse. I received a phone call at midnight asking if I could think of a large space to accommodate the evacuees. I answered without thinking “Classis”. They asked me how long it took to open it and I replied “Ten minutes”. I went out dressed as I was, almost in my pajamas, and I stayed like that for 4 days, I went to a colleague to get the keys and then I went to the museum: I could hear the rain beating incessantly and the news on the radio. It was like when they asked me to leave for Palestine I immediately said yes because I felt that it made sense.”
You also welcomed the animals into the museum, how did it go?
«Yes, there have been some wonderful feedback: since I arrived at the Foundation I have been stressing my colleagues because I am an animal lover and I wanted them to be able to enter our sites. It is animals that often give us the strength to carry on, they cause very few problems in a museum if they are well managed. During the flood they slept next to their ‘parents’, even the parrots in the cages or the kittens in the carrier. The museum is for everyone or it isn’t.”
Has anyone come back to visit you this year?
«We remained in contact with the entire group of volunteers, more than 100, a cohesive group that participated in all our initiatives, from concerts to meetings. Some of the evacuees also came and brought relatives or grandchildren to show where they were, to photograph where they had slept, there were 700 cots in the museum, many were sun loungers at the seaside. Many people brought us food in those days: the first was a lady who at 4 in the morning on May 18th brought us two cakes for breakfast, before the Camst flooded it provided the meals then we arranged with the local restaurants area, but there were many citizens who came with trays of lasagna, cakes and sweets. The fabric of Classe was all present, the territory was very important, the community rallied around its museum.”
What came from this story?
«Lots of reflections, also experiences for children such as “A night at the museum”, activities that are always sold out. In addition to important collaborations such as the one with the Alzheimer’s Association and the Local Health Authority: a cultural welfare project aimed at those suffering from this pathology with courses for caregivers, health workers and family members of people with dementia, thanks to the collaboration with Palazzo teachers Strozzi in Florence.
I would like the museum to be a place that is increasingly open to questions from the community. When the flood occurred, a person with cognitive dementia arrived. The electricity cut scared her and to calm her down we showed her some objects in the museum.
The museum can therefore be a place of care and a new integrated model for promoting well-being and health, through practices based on the use of cultural heritage. Some courses and appointments dedicated to people with cognitive dementia will start in October.”
 welcomed over 900 displaced people to the Classis Museum){kind=link}