Heritage of Stories springs from the shared experience of Simona Bodo, Silvia Mascheroni and Maria Grazia Panigada, three professionals with complementary skills who have been designing and implementing storytelling projects in museum and heritage contexts since 2011.
Through this journey together, they refined a working methodology which has been successfully applied to institutions as diverse as the Uffizi Galleries, Brera Picture Gallery, the Chianti and Valdarno Museum System, the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bergamo and the Museum of Peoples and Cultures of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Milan, as well as to heritage sites and urban contexts like Bergamo and Cesenatico.
They also co-edited the publication Un patrimonio di storie. La narrazione nei musei, una risorsa per la cittadinanza culturale (A heritage of stories. Storytelling in museums, a resource for cultural citizenship) (Mimesis Edizioni, Milan 2016), where most of their first projects are documented.
Heritage of Stories is a working group of the Associazione Culturale Silvia Dell’Orso, whose main goal is to foster a public understanding and an increased sensitivity to cultural heritage, in a way that is both accurate and accessible
Simona Bodo (BA in Art History from Università degli Studi Milan, MA in Museums and Galleries Administration from City University London) is an independent researcher and consultant with a particular interest in the social agency of museums and their role in the development of diverse and inclusive heritage communities.
On these issues she acts as an advisor to public and private institutions (e.g. Uffizi Galleries, Brera Picture Gallery, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities – former DG for the Valorisation of Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage Institute of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Fondazione ISMU – Initiatives and Studies on Multiethnicity, Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione Scuola Beni Attività Culturali, Eccom – Ideas for Culture), and has taken part as a team expert in a number of European projects devoted to the issue of immigrants’ cultural participation.
She is co-creator and editor of “Patrimonio e Intercultura” (English version also available), an on-line resource promoted by Fondazione ISMU and specifically devoted to the intercultural potential of heritage education projects.
She is Advisory Board member of SiA – Solidarity in Action Network, an international online community collaboratively reflecting on solidarity practice in museums.
Her publications/essays include: S. Bodo, A. C. Cimoli (eds.), Il museo necessario. Mappe per tempi complessi (Nomos Edizioni, 2023); S. Bodo, S. Mascheroni, M. G. Panigada (eds.), Lascio in eredità me stesso alla terra (Masso delle Fate, 2021); S. Bodo, S. Mascheroni, M. G. Panigada (eds.), Un patrimonio di storie. La narrazione nei musei, una risorsa per la cittadinanza culturale (Mimesis Edizioni, 2016); S. Bodo, “Museums as intercultural spaces”, in R. Sandell and E. Nightingale (eds.), Museums, Equality and Social Justice (Routledge, 2012); S. Bodo, K. Gibbs and M. Sani (eds.), Museums as Places for Intercultural Dialogue: selected practices from Europe (published by MAP for ID partners, 2009); S. Bodo et al., A Brera anch’io. Il museo come terreno di dialogo interculturale (Electa 2007); S. Bodo and M. R. Cifarelli, Quando la cultura fa la differenza. Patrimonio, arti e media nella società multiculturale (Meltemi 2006).
Silvia Mascheroni is a contemporary art historian and a long established researcher and practitioner with a particular interest in cultural heritage education.
She is a lecturer at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan (Master in “Education services for artistic heritage, history and visual arts museums”) and at Pisa University (Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni storico-artistici).
She has chaired the “Education and Mediation” Commission of ICOM (International Council of Museums) Italy from 2007 to 2013.
She has been Head of Education Services at the Accademia Carrara Foundation from 2016 to 2018, and is currently in charge of special projects.
Together with Simona Bodo, she is co-creator and editor of the website “Patrimonio e Intercultura”.
She is Vice President of the Associazione Culturale Silvia Dell’Orso.
Her publications include: Lascio in eredità me stesso alla terra (with S. Bodo and M. G. Panigada, Masso delle Fate, 2021); Dipingere a parole. Storie circolari del Chianti e del Valdarno (with N. Matteuzzi and M. G. Panigada, Masso delle Fate, 2019); Un patrimonio di storie. La narrazione nei musei, una risorsa per la cittadinanza culturale (with S. Bodo and M. G. Panigada, Mimesis Edizioni, 2016); Per l’educazione al patrimonio culturale. 22 tesi (with A. Bortolotti, M. Calidoni and I. Mattozzi, FrancoAngeli, 2008).
As a storytelling expert in museum contexts and co-founder of Heritage of Stories, Maria Grazia Panigada has worked with museum institutions (Uffizi Galleries, Brera Picture Gallery, Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bergamo, Chianti and Valdarno Museum System…), libraries (Angelo Mai City Library in Bergamo), heritage sites and urban contexts.
She is the author of several essays devoted to the relationship between theatre and education, and runs theatre workshops in different local contexts.
She is the artistic director of Teatro Donizetti and Teatro Sociale in Bergamo since 2015, and since 2022 of the festival “Human Voices”. Museums and teatro di narrazione”, promoted by Direzione regionale Musei Lombardia.
Together with Simona Bodo and Silvia Mascheroni, she edited she edited Lascio in eredità me stesso alla terra (Masso delle Fate, 2021) and Un patrimonio di storie. La narrazione nei musei, una risorsa per la cittadinanza culturale (Mimesis Edizioni, 2016); with Silvia Mascheroni and Nicoletta Matteuzzi, Dipingere a parole. Storie circolari del Chianti e del Valdarno (Masso delle Fate, 2019).