The museum enters the classroom and the class enters the museum

This project for deaf and hearing children was designed to promote integration and bilingualism (using Italian Sign Language and Italian). The content has been created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The idea for this project came from two experts in art education, Hollie Ecker and Carlo di Biase. Hollie is an art historian and winner of the American Fulbright scholarship for cultural exchange between the United States and Italy. Carlo is a deaf art historian and art teacher at primary / elementary school. He won the "Roberto Wirth" scholarship and specialised in methods for teaching art to deaf children from zero to six years at Gallaudet University.

The need for the project: studies show that art helps us to understand the world around us, contributes to the cognitive development of deaf children and a capacity to take significance from the world.

In Italy there are few museums that provide the possibility of accessing sensory programmes and services designed for deaf children.

General objectives: to create and maintain a relationship between the school and arts spaces, disseminate guidelines for school teachers and museum staff in Italy. The guidelines will show how to development and impliment a history of art programme and accessible art teaching for deaf children.

Specific objectives: stimulate and reinforce cognitive, linguistic and social potential of deaf children, promote integration with hearing peers involved in the project.

Beneficiaries: deaf and hearing children from five to eight years old.