ERIH Italy Meeting 2022 - Communication and Industrial Tourism

The ERIH - European Route of Industrial Heritage Italia Meeting 2022, held on 29 April in the evocative setting of the Museo del Ferro di San Bartolomeo, in Brescia, was aimed at providing an update on the state of play of the Italian network, with a view to starting to promote an integrated communication of the initiatives planned by the Italian ERIH sites for the next two years.

ERIH deals with the enhancement of industrial heritage tourism in Europe. The network brings together more than 330 members in 30 countries and promotes some 2100 sites that have marked the history of industry. Many of the sites are part of a European Theme Route, representing a sector of industry or a way of representing it for interpretation purposes; among those present, Matrice Lavoro with Fondazione AEM and ANBI Lombardia, presented the candidature of a Regional Water Route linked to the Lombardy water system.

After the opening greetings of René Capovin, director of MUSIL - Museo Industria Lavoro, and Massimo Preite, member of the Board and ERIH Italy network contact person, the speeches by the managers and organisers of the Italian sites that are part of the network began.

Paolo Tomasella (Museum of the Antonio Pitter Power Station, Malnisio) illustrated the set-up project for the multimedia dissemination of the museum's heritage, Fabrizio Trisoglio (AEM Foundation) presented the Foundation's vision with a speech focused on Sharing Energy Heritage: memory, territory, and sustainability, Giorgio Bigatti (ISEC), René Capovin (MUSIL), Fabrizio Trisoglio (Fondazione AEM) explained the Water Cultural Route project and its Italian candidature, Gabriele Bosi (Councillor for Tourism, Municipality of Prato), Simone Mangani (Councillor for Culture, Municipality of Prato), Filippo Guarini (Museo del Tessuto, Prato) spoke about the Prato Industrial Tourism Project and the territory's initiatives aimed at enhancing the manufacturing sector, Alessio Zoeddu (Museum of Industrial Heritage, Bologna) focused on the importance of museum work in a didactic perspective for schools with the presentation Between exhibitions and industry of the future: Some Actions of the Industrial Heritage Museum, Giulia Fabbrini and Daniele Rappuoli (Abbadia San Salvatore Mining Museum) spoke about the Erasmus+ Project Hector: Industrial Heritage as Key Competences for Tourist OperatoR and the implications on the territory, Paolo Blasi (Stia Wool Art Museum) spoke about the programmes and initiatives of the Wool Art Museum, Marcello Vaudano (Fabbrica della Ruota) spoke about the current projects and initiatives For a revival of the Wheel Factory, Stefania Carretti (Officine Reggiane Archives) illustrated the work of valorisation of the archive inherent to the Reggiane Archives: Cap. 3 Canteens and Dopolavoro.

The framework for all these initiatives was the presentation of the ERIH communication project by TrattoPunto-Industrial Tourism, which is making its experience available free of charge to organise an integrated communication tool, under the aegis of Erih Italia, of all the events reported by the network. This tool involves the creation of a Facebook profile and, linked to this, a twin profile on Instagram. Thanks to these tools it will be possible, for the first time, to give wide visibility to the activities of the ERIH Italia network, with a common logo and a unifying and recognisable communication format.

Photo credit: Massimo Preite e Marcello Vaudano