Italian museums to host family day out

(ANSA) - Rome, October 7 - Hundreds of museums around Italy will celebrate Sunday the second annual National Family to the Museum day designed to heighten parents' awareness of what the country's rich cultural institutions can offer their children.
    In all more than 560 museums ranging from the internationally famous venues such as the MAXXI in Rome and the Pinacoteca di Brera to smaller provincial collections are throwing open their doors to families for a special day programme of games and activities conceived by the Web site Kids Art Tourism and organised by the Families to Museums Association.
    "Families often do not go to museums because they think that it is not a suitable place for children," said Elisa Rosa, artistic director of the special day entitled F@Mu 2014 and a founder of the Kids Art Tourism site.
    "We propose an experience of cultural education outside of the school environment and shared with the family," she told a press conference.
    "This is also a way to make the museums understand that another target public exists".
    The 2014 theme for the special day is linked to "Ariadne's thread" referring to the connection that links all families and children who take part in the extravaganza.
    Children will be able to have a "dialogue" with counterparts in other cities by sending them a postcard on which they express how they feel about taking part in the special museums day for families, she added.
    The crowning glory of the special day out this year will be the Child Size Museum Manifesto drawn up with families who imagined an ideal museum for their children.
    Official mascots of the great day are little Mati and Dadà, cartoon characters in "the art of Mati and Dadà," the first programme beamed by state-run television RAI dedicated to art for children.
    Produced by Achtoons and Rai Fiction, the cartoon will be broadcast Saturday evening on Rai YoYo with a target of explaining art of great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Michelangelo, Van Gogh and Rembrandt to children aged 5 to 8 years old.
    The two cartoon characters also feature in an official advertising clip for the national family day out at the museum that was produced by a group of children with assistance from the Cineteca of Bologna and the Paper Moon association.