Last Thursday at the museum: ‘On the Thread of Memories’

24 August 2023 with Ferdinanda Cremascoli

In line with this year’s theme, ‘On the Thread of Memories’, the Archaeological Museum and the Granite Ecomuseum, in collaboration with Mergozzo Town Council and the Archaeological Group, are organising a series of cultural events on their usual Thursday evenings. These will be opportunities for discussion, featuring screenings and in-depth explorations of various aspects of life in days gone by, playing on the dual meaning of the word ‘filo’ (thread): starting with the physical ‘thread’ – which is spun and woven – and moving on to the ‘thread’ understood as a symbolic link to the past.

The series will conclude with an event on Thursday 24 August • at 9.00 pm – at the Antica Latteria on the theme • The Common Thread of Writing • with Ferdinanda Cremascoli: reflections on the origins of alphabetic writing and a comparison of various writing systems. Starting with the earliest forms of writing – as evidenced by artefacts from the Mergozzo Archaeological Museum – the discussion will move on to new forms of writing influenced by technology.

A free event forming part of the network-wide programme ‘La pietra racconta’, developed in collaboration with the Granum Museum and Baveno Town Council, which has received funding from the VCO Community Foundation.

Ferdinanda Cremascoli

A graduate in literature, she worked in Italian secondary schools until September 2015, first as a teacher (1973–1996) and then as a headteacher (1996–2015). Within the school system, she focused primarily on language education, introducing new technologies from the mid-1980s onwards. She has authored articles and presented papers at numerous conferences, as well as contributing to textbooks on writing instruction; among her most recent works are *The Development of the Italian Curriculum in the First Two Years of Upper Secondary School* (1990, La Nuova Italia, Florence, with Dante Trezzi); *A Guide to Writing in the Final Three Years of Upper Secondary School* (1993, La Nuova Italia), and *A Manual on Writing* (with Domenico Fiormonte, 1997, Bollati e Boringhieri).

Together with his students, he has overseen digitisation projects, such as the critical edition of the *Decameron* on Brown University’s website and the publication of Guido Cavalcanti’s *Rime* on LiberLiber.

As a headteacher, she promoted the use of the tools made available by new technologies within the school; on this subject, she co-authored with Mara Gualdoni the book *The Electronic Whiteboard: A Guide to Multimedia Teaching* (2000, Laterza); and *The School Profession: A Memoir* (2019, e-book).

He currently manages the websiteitalianacontemporanea.org, a collection of original and translated writings in Italian, the result of decades of reflection on issues relating to the teaching profession.