Are you in Venice and looking for ideas for current exhibitions or museums open today? If you’re in the San Marco area, you might visit “A World of Potential” at the Procuratie Vecchie,an interactive path that takes us on a discovery of our strengths to find out how together we can make a difference. The path of A World of Potential is unique. It welcomes visitors so that everyone can explore their own potential and discover how to make a concrete and positive impact on society. It is located inside the House of The Human Safety Net on the third floor of the Procuratie in St. Mark’s Square in Venice, restored by Pritzker Prize 2023 winner David Chipperfield and open to the public for the first time in its 500-year history.
The House of The Human Safety Net, which to celebrate three years since its inauguration has decided to open its spaces to free admission with voluntary donation, is the place where people can connect with the values and mission of The Human Safety Net, the movement of people helping people born to unleash the potential of those living in vulnerable conditions so that they can improve the living conditions of their families and communities. Active in 25 countries around the world, in partnership with 85 NGOs, this movement works to support vulnerable families with young children up to age 6 and the inclusion of refugees, in host countries, through employment and entrepreneurship. ” We are a movement of people helping other people. We believe in the potential and the right of everyone to be able to express it to improve their living conditions ” explains Alexia Boro, house director of The Human Safety Net, emphasizing how everyone can make a difference to change even one life.
The permanent exhibition, in six languages, was curated by Orna Cohen, an expert in creating global pathways to social inclusion through museum exhibitions and workshops, and translates what The Human Safety Net does around the world. Thanks to the experience conceived together with the architecture firm Migliore+Servetto, with art direction by Rampello & Partners, “A World of Potential” stems from positive psychology research in the early 2000s by American psychologists Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson, who developed the VIA (Values in Action) method, through which, by analyzing human character, they created a map of 24 character strengths common to all.
“These constitute our often hidden potential, which we need to train like a muscle, because only if you can feel good about yourself can you feel good about others,” says Boro. Among the exhibitions that can be visited in Venice, “World of Potential,” thus aims to make visitors understand what potential is, starting with values such as: creativity, kindness, perseverance, gratitude, curiosity, hope, social intelligence and teamwork, which are inspired by 16 interactive, analog and digital installations capable of engaging people of all ages, inviting them to grasp the strengths of each person and see the best in themselves and others, through tests, individual or team challenges.
At the beginning of the permanent exhibition in Venice, the visitor is welcomed and immediately led to reflect on how even starting from vulnerable conditions it is possible to express one’s strengths, taking as an example such personalities of our time as Malala, Rihanna, Coco Chanel or Freddie Mercury, who have made it while starting from very vulnerable backgrounds.
During the exhibition tour, visitors are invited to take the VIA test, which leads them to identify their strengths. This will lead him or her at the end of the exhibition to meet, through a video testimony, a refugee, a mother, an educator or a worker from the NGOs that collaborate, thanks to Assicurazioni Generali’s support, with The Human Safety Net, with whom they share the same values and who will tell how these have influenced their own life path.
«We have expanded the exhibit even more with new stories from the beneficiaries. It is a way to learn about The Human Safety’s programs by giving substance to what the Foundation strives for every day ” explains Boro, emphasizing how the exhibition at the Procuratie of St. Mark’s helps raise awareness of such important topics as inclusion, acceptance and the right of everyone to have their talents enhanced.
Here, the path of the exhibition at the Procuratie Vecchie in St. Mark’s Square shifts from strengths that are exercised on an individual level, as in the game of Roulette of Hope where visitors are asked to solve problems in a cross-cutting and creative way, to those that are instead expressed in confrontation and interaction with others. Thanks to BrainCo‘s advanced technology, at some point along the way, by placing a device on the forehead that detects brain waves, it is also possible to measure our perseverance, or ability to focus on a goal.
In team games, everyone learns to work together by joining forces toward a common goal: being well. Here an ideal
There are also a number of in-depth activities and workshops designed for all ages, which constantly flank the exhibition housed in the Procuratie Vecchie in St. Mark’s Square. Within the exhibition itinerary one also encounters a very special space designed to host temporary exhibitions in which artists interpret the Foundation’s themes.
The House of The Human Safety Net is open every day except Tuesdays(10 a.m. to 7 p.m. from April 1 to Oct. 31 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Nov. 1 to March 31) for meeting, studying, co-working, a reading time in the library, a visit to the new Museum shop or a coffee with friends.
C.I.D. s.r.l. Società a Socio Unico – Casa editrice del settimanale Gente Veneta – CF e PI 02341300271 – REA: VE – 211669 – Capitale Sociale 31.000 euro i.v. – Dorsoduro,1 – 30123 Venezia
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