Proposals for the 2025/2026 school year

Thematic workshops for primary school classes

Proposal by the Department of Education, Education and New Generations of the City of Bologna

The Kingdoms of Nature: living beings, non-living beings

From September 23 to November 26, 2025 (every Tuesday and Wednesday)

The meeting begins with an observation of the drawers of the 3 closets of the Bombicci Circulating Museum, dedicated to the kingdoms of Animals, Plants and Minerals. A playful-expressive, group activity will follow, around the kingdoms of nature and the distinction between living and non-living. The material produced will be delivered to the class to continue learning while playing.

The School As It Was

From December 9, 2025 to March 4, 2026 (every Tuesday and Wednesday)

News and curiosities from the school world of the early twentieth century: the itinerary includes a guided tour of the spaces of the School Museum, where there is a partial reconstruction of a school classroom of the time, with an observation of the materials on display and the themed drawers of the wardrobes of the Bombicci Circulating Museum. The workshop will then be held in the teaching room where boys and girls can experiment with writing with pens, inkwells and inks.

Treasures of the Sea and the Earth: the Shells

From March 10 to May 20, 2026 (every Tuesday and Wednesday, excluding holiday dates)

The laboratory involves observing the drawers of the Bombicci Circulating Museum dedicated to Gasteropods and Bivalves. There will also be an exhibition with fabrics, sand, shells from our seas and precious specimens from the Museum's collection, which will inspire the laboratory of paper and material collage, with a marine subject.

Proposal by 'Untitled'

Teacher, tell!

September 2025 to May 2026 (Monday and Thursday between 9 and 13)

What was school like 100 years ago? An animated theatrical visit that stars a young teacher from the past. Between amusing anecdotes, original documents and curious stories, peeking into the closets of the Bombicci Educational Museum, boys and girls will be accompanied in an exciting story back in time to learn, imagine and experiment with
simple educational games the environments, materials and daily lifein the 1925 school.

The memory in the drawer

September 2025 to May 2026 (Monday and Thursday between 9 and 13)

For many contemporary artists, the archive is an opportunity to hold back the memory of people, stories and stories. Starting from the story of the experience of the wardrobes dedicated to the 'Three Kingdoms of Nature' present at the museum, participants will experience what 'cataloguing' and 'archiving' mean in our contemporaneity and why it is necessary to do so. In the laboratory, aided
by real objects to be built, the girls and boys will compose a “class drawer” where they can keep traces of memory, creating a metaphorical portrait between individual and collective dimensions.

Cataloging the world

September 2025 to May 2026 (Monday and Thursday between 9 and 13)

At the end of the 19th century, the professor of mineralogy Luigi Bombicci created three cabinets for educational purposes, each containing 30 drawers on the “Three Kingdoms of Nature” - mineral, animal, vegetable. Accompanied by the discovery of these material archives, participants will deepen the concepts of collection and cataloguing and how these have changed over time. Looking at the practice of contemporary artists who have placed at the center of their work an idea of cataloguing as an investigation of the world, in the laboratory the participants will create their own collection of objects that carry meaning, not only from a personal perspective, but also as a mirror of a community.

Educational Bologna

From September 2025 to May 2026 (Monday and Thursday between 9 and 13)

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Bologna put into practice the theories of positivist pedagogy; the circulating educational museum and the open-air schools are only the most striking examples of the many small choices that have
led Bologna to be a point of reference in this area. The visit to the Bombicci Educational Museum will be the starting point for retracing the history of Bolognese education, pedagogical activism and positivism. In the laboratory, participants will experience, through simple individual and collective exercises, how we can look at, analyze and tell the world around us using different approaches.

Contacts and reservations

Luigi Bombicci Scientific Educational Museum
via Sant’Isaia 20, 40123 Bologna
phone: 0516440610 (dal lunedì al giovedì dalle 10 alle 13)
email: museobombicci@comune.bologna.it