Education using tools that complement normal classroom activities, such as Field Schools, is one of the objectives of the Three-year Plan for educational, research, and self-assessment activities of the Ministry of Culture. Direct involvement in the safeguarding and promotion of cultural heritage opens up a professional path already in the learning stage and, at the same time, allows for the experimentation of new forms of cultural heritage planning and action by the Ministry.
Field School
A Field School is a temporary work area, aimed at securing and/or safeguarding, studying, investigating, gaining knowledge, restoration, recovery, or re-functionalization of an asset. This is achieved through theoretical-practical educational activities.
Field School activities, designed with the active education of participants in mind, are carried out based on interdisciplinary research, several technical and scientific inputs, participatory planning, and the coordinated involvement of different players.
The operational flexibility of this tool offers a chance to organize educational/training experiences and initiatives – designed for different target groups through a broad spectrum of teaching methods, informal and non-formal – aimed at contextually understanding the value of the cultural asset and the research aspects connected to it a.
The restoration and promotion of historical cultural heritage can be a perfect area of dialogue and mutual enrichment between tradition and new technologies, appropriately combined: in fact, the possibility of following opposite directions on the same path, embracing the past and the future together, is admirably achieved here.
In proposing Field Schools that can foster the recovery of specific knowledge and specialized, local skills – long vouched for and handed down within guilds of arts, crafts, handiwork, or works of individual workshops – sites have been identified to activate, or rather, reactivate, these processes of education and execution of tangible activities. This practice ensures the achievement of two essential principles of the Constitution: the increased possibility and quality of work (art. 1) and the defence of heritage (art. 9).
Target audience
Proposals for active education through Field Schools are primarily targeted at students from schools and universities, institutions of higher education, research entities, and courses for entry into professions in the field of restoration and maintenance of historical buildings and cultural heritage.
DAM Platform for Field Schools
The DAM (Digital Asset Management) multimedia platform, currently being implemented by the Directorate, is a tool for promoting and disseminating educational activities in cultural heritage through Field Schools, including the use of new technologies during training and in actions performed. The platform is intended for operators and professionals working in cultural heritage; the tool will have profiles for “Training institutions” on one hand, and “Available site” on the other. This is meant to enhance the training activities performed by universities, institutes, research entities, and associations by making cultural heritage sites and activities accessible, allowing users to begin the stages of asset investigation, study, and knowledge and promoting the launch of restoration and promotion projects at different scales of intervention.
Experiences
PILOT EXPERIENCE: FIELD SCHOOL – SILVESTRI-RIVALDI COMPLEX IN ROME
Online Resources
RESTORATION ON TOUR 2021 –FIELD SCHOOLS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM, Fiera del Levante, Bari