MUSEO DIFFUSO dei 5 Sensi
Piazza Libertà 2 Sciacca (AG) – Italy
(Medieval Bastion)
We are a "Museo Diffuso," which means that Sciacca itself is our open-air museum. Here, every element of the city, including its people with their stories, represents our priceless treasure, ready to be shared with anyone who comes to visit us.
www.sciacca5sensi.it @ All Right Reserved 2023
This is the story of a community that chose to write its destiny with its own hands, without waiting for help from the heavens and without allowing it to be governed by the inertia of fate. Many different people: different in age, profession, ways of thinking, and living. United by their love for their land, awareness of the value of what surrounds them, and the determination to act to turn potential into reality.
April 1, 2020
COMMUNITY COOPERATIVE
As time passed, the need arose to establish an operational structure alongside the APS Ecomuseo dei 5 Sensi, one that would do business, seek funding, support initiatives, interact with investors, and promote Sciacca in the world with professionalism and expertise. It's time to nurture that sense of community, keep the enthusiasm alive, and expand on the content and offerings. And it's time to do so by focusing on competence and young talent.
And while the whole world is at a standstill due to the Covid-19 emergency, behind the closed doors of the notary's office, with faces covered by masks, the eyes of those present shine as they sign the constitution act, igniting that glimmer of hope, so longed for and invoked from everywhere. On April 1, 2020, the Community Cooperative "Identità e Bellezza" was born, by the will of an entire community, which once again intends to network and embrace new tools, new challenges. A Cooperative that calls upon new resources, born of the times and creativity. A seed sown on the arid soil of the darkest period in recent Italian history, tinged with the hope of green, the green of the fields on which that seed will bear fruit, a green reminiscent of the felt of the gaming table that, just a year before, welcomed the decision to create a Museo Diffuso in Sciacca
February 12, 2020
ACCREDITATION
The Ecomuseo dei 5 Sensi receives accreditation from the Sicilian Region and becomes part of the network of the first 11 Ecomuseums in Sicily.
It is an opportunity for the Museo Diffuso to start the project "Identity Narration Workshops" in various schools.
A format devised by RAI journalist Emilio Casalini. Emilio Casalini himself will present it to the students of IISS Amato Vetrano (Hotel and Agriculture), IISS Fermi (Science and Languages), and IISS Don Michele Arena, explaining the significance and providing suggestions, as well as contributing ideas and examples from the world. The goal is to encourage students to "narrate" their own land and its peculiarities, in forms that only the imagination and creativity of young people can produce.
1 September 2019
SCHOOL YEAR 2020/2021
The 2019/2020 school year begins, and collaborations with educational institutions begin. Schools play an absolutely central role in the education of new generations and their involvement in the valorization of the territory.
It is an opportunity for the Museo Diffuso to launch the project "Identity Narration Workshops" in various schools. A format devised by RAI journalist Emilio Casalini. Emilio Casalini himself will present it to the students of IISS Amato Vetrano (Hotel and Agriculture), IISS Fermi (Science and Languages), and IISS Don Michele Arena, explaining the significance and providing suggestions, as well as contributing ideas and examples from the world. The goal is to encourage students to "narrate" their own land and its peculiarities, in forms that only the imagination and creativity of young people can produce.
August 1, 2019
EXPERIENCES
During the summer of 2019, the Museo Diffuso enriches its already high-quality experiential offerings by introducing a package of experiences related to painting, coral processing, ceramic and papier-mâché modeling: The Painting Experience, The Coral Experience, The Ceramic Experience, and The Carnival Experience.
During the same period, a collaboration with the Curia Arcivescovile di Agrigento begins, proposing shared management of the Sciacca branch of MUDIA, the Diocesan Museum of Agrigento.
21 June 2019
COLLABORATIONS
While continuing the ongoing institutional dialogues that will lead to the signing of two important memoranda of understanding and collaboration, one with the Municipality of Sciacca and the other with the Regional Tourist Office of Agrigento, even the President of the Region, Nello Musumeci, when meeting with the board of the APS Ecomuseo dei 5 Sensi, expressed appreciation for the work done, which in his opinion should be adopted as a model to be replicated and exported throughout the Sicilian territory.
To certify the approval of local and regional institutions for the Museo Diffuso dei 5 Sensi, the museum received endorsements from the Municipality of Sciacca, the Free Consortium of Agrigento, the Regional Tourism Department, and the Regional Assembly of Sicily. An outpouring of enthusiasm and satisfaction for the city that will never stop.
May 18, 2020
THE NIGHT OF THE MUSEUMS
On May 18, 2019, the synergy of all the key players in the Museo Diffuso was tested. It was the "Night of the Museums," the perfect opportunity to offer the city an event that brought together 18 initiatives to stimulate the senses of all participants. It was an evening of culture and sensory experiences that garnered a huge public success, with many clamoring for it to be repeated. And since nothing happens by chance, a fruitful collaboration with the Superintendent for Cultural Heritage of Agrigento, Arch. Michele Benfari, was born in that context. Showing interest and appreciation for the Museo Diffuso initiative, he supervised the security operations of an 18th-century oil on canvas painting depicting Saint Mark the Evangelist, precisely on the International Museum Day.
18 April 2019
ECOMUSEUM OF 5 SENSES
On April 18, 2019, the social promotion association "Ecomuseo dei 5 Sensi" was established in Sciacca with the aim of presenting an application for recognition to the Sicilian Region, under a law that had been passed for years but never put into effect, and the promoters of the Museo Diffuso project contributed to unlocking it by showing the work already done.
Fifteen days later, the call for applications was issued, and the association submitted its request. This was followed by months of waiting, interrupted only on February 7, 2020, with the signature of the President of the Region, Nello Musumeci, on the decree establishing the first eleven regional Ecomuseums. Among them is the "Museo Diffuso dei 5 Sensi" of Sciacca. And the whole city celebrates.
7 April 2019
PRESENTATION TO THE CITY
Two weeks after the presentation to the city, on April 7, 2019, the VISION of a COMMUNITY that takes action and focuses on exponential tourism for the sustainable development of its territory, and the MISSION of a city aiming to become a "TOURIST DESTINATION," were illustrated during the XXI edition of the TravelExpo in Terrasini, receiving great enthusiasm and favor from those present.
From that moment on, Sciacca, the city of the 5 Senses, was invited to participate in various conferences as a BEST PRACTICE. There was also talk of a unique Social Engineering Laboratory in Italy.
March 21, 2019
THE MUSEUM OF 5 SENSES
It is the same community that pays tribute through a virtual but warm embrace when transitioning from ideas to actions, from the project to reality. It was March 24, 2019, when the CONCEPT "Museo Diffuso dei 5 Sensi" was presented to the city, and it was received favorably from the start, with great participation and enthusiasm.
It would be a unique event, symbolically held in everyone's home, the Municipality of Sciacca, through which the fruit of about two months of work, starting from that fresh Sunday morning in January, was illustrated and described. Everything was already "done," there in front of the eyes of all the citizens who, for once, in their city, did not hear talk of "we will do" or "we must do" but of "we have already done" and, from the very beginning, "we will continue to do together."
It was the virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the entrance to the Museum, a Museum that had always been in front of everyone's eyes, but many had not yet seen, had not identified at all, had never perceived.
For the first time, the logo of the Museo Diffuso and its pictogram were presented. A blend of colors representing the union of all five gates of the city of Sciacca. They are combined because the five access points to the Museo Diffuso, through synthesis, through being together, become the grand main gateway to the future of the city itself. The doors are five, just as the senses are five, and each door is associated with a sense: taste, smell, hearing, sight, touch.
February 28, 2019
BRAND IDENTITY
The first question that those at the table had to answer was to explain what Sciacca's identity was for them, that is, the element that characterizes Sciacca and distinguishes it from all other cities. But Sciacca has so many, so many identities that it was impossible to choose one in particular. We in the South, we Sicilians, may be poor in infrastructure, but we are rich in identity. Thus, the idea of an Open-Air Museum, for everyone and by everyone, was born.
At that precise moment, a project was emerging aimed at tourists, residents, entrepreneurs, and all the hinterland of Sciacca. A project that values Sciacca, its traditions, its historic center, its territory. An OPEN-AIR MUSEUM that becomes the BRAND IDENTITY of an entire city: Sciacca - City of the 5 Senses. A magical place, where emotions are perceived with the 5 senses, and where the 5 city gates transform into entrances to the Museo Diffuso, a Museum of experiences, a sensory Museum. The streets become the corridors of the Museum, the squares become the exhibition halls, the monuments are the attractions, the commercial businesses with accommodations and dining places complete the picture of sensory experiences between tradition and natural, artistic, and cultural beauty. And Sciacca becomes, or rather discovers itself, as a great COMMUNITY.
February 28, 2019
THINK TANK
SoS Historical Center: The first meeting of the community
Around a long table, covered with a green gaming cloth, sat all the representatives of "Sciacca produ(A)ttiva," from residents to restaurateurs, from business operators to artisans, from ceramists to accommodation providers, from event organizers to cultural operators, from tourist guides to museum operators. The table was convened to address an emergency: that of a "historic center" that, in Sciacca, like in many other Italian towns, is becoming deserted from a commercial, economic, social, and human point of view. On that green cloth, this time, there were no cards to play with, but the dealer still called on those present to bet on the biggest gamble: feeling part of a single community and taking action to begin building their present and future. Without waiting for manna from heaven. Seizing the opportunity behind the problem. Here and now.