In occasion of the exhibition Mapping the Studio Palazzo Grassi has – working in collaboration  with the Art History Department at the Venice University of Ca’ Foscari – established a service of cultural mediation at both Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, to be supplied by specially selected and trained students attending the faculty.

On Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, these cultural mediators are at the disposal of the visiting public at both exhibition venues, during the usual opening hours of 10 am to 7pm. They can be identified by their burgundy t-shirts bearing the words dialogare, ascoltare, domandare, camminare [communicate, listen, question, walk], four verbs that perfectly summarise their role.

A cultural mediator is neither a guide nor a room attendant, but rather someone with good language and inter-personal skills who is there to respond to whatever questions the visitors might have. Such mediators listen to and communicate with visitors, establishing a stronger link between them and the works of art. Bringing together their own knowledge of their discipline and the curiosity art can raise nowadays, they facilitate engagement with works that are an expression of a specific cultural background.

The cultural mediator reminds us that each work of art can be interrogated, and that each time it responds to the questions it is posed – questions that change continually, depending upon our own interests and our previous experience.

With its exhibition Nigra sum sed formosa. Sacro e bellezza dell’Etiopia cristiana, held in Spring 2009, the Venice University of Ca’ Foscari initiated the first cultural mediator service in Venice, with a large group of its own students. Such mediators have long been a presence abroad – particularly in France –whereas in Italy the only previous such service was supplied at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin. This Ca’ Foscari initiative was part of a university project – organised in collaboration with the Banca Popolare FriulAdria – which is designed not only to provide the students involved with a complete background in the art and history of the twentieth century, but also to supply them with work experience and personal skills that will be of value in their future professional life.