During two weeks in July 2025, a group of 40 participants from various places in the world came together in Turin to think through the thorny and complex theme of institutional transformation. The occasion was the International Summer School Reimagining a Museum: Designing new perspectives for cultural institutions in the 21st century.

Working on a specific case study in the city, the MAcA – Museo A come Ambiente, a museum already undergoing the initial stages of rethinking and transformation, the participants generated a series of concrete proposals to imagine the future of the MAcA. Their various backgrounds, geographical origins, and professional paths converged to create an incredibly knowledgeable and diverse group.

The work done together combined two different methods, borrowing from democratic innovation processes, and visualization techniques that generated varied kinds of outputs. These included techniques used in citizens assemblies and deliberation processes, such as ample times for specialized input, flexible and adaptable working groups, random selection, feedback rounds, and dot voting, always leaving ample space for discussion and reflection. Having a strong design focus, the process also aimed to produce different kinds of outputs that could mediate the results beyond the typical report generated at the end of a traditional assembly process. In this way, the summer school followed the method of the Incomplete City workshop, in order to manifest the proposals and outcomes of the summer school in an ambitious and visible way, in the form of a large collage. This was accompanied by a print publication, generated in real time during the five days of work in presence. 

Such diverse outputs allow to communicate not only this experimental methodology, but also the results, in ways that can be read by different audiences and different temporalities. The resulting collage will remain at MAcA where can serve as a way to start conversations and continue to stimulate the imagination of all those who continue to work towards the transformation of the museum.

International Summer School “Reimagining a museum”
A project by
City of Torino – Torino Design City
Produced by 
Urban Lab Torino
Curated by
Circolo del Design
With the collaboration of
Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino, IAAD,  IED Torino, Politecnico di Torino Dipartimento di Architettura e Design
With the participation of MAcA – Museo A come Ambiente, GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna Torino, Orti Generali, PAV – Parco Arte Vivente
Financed by
Ministero del Turismo
A UNESCO Creative City
Torino City of Design
Direction
Sara Fortunati
Curatorship
Vera Sacchetti with Marco Ferrari
Faculty
Amelie Klein, Elena Dellapiana, Francesca Comisso, Lucrezia Nardi, Marco Bozzola, Michael Kaethler
Coordination and Production
Nicholas Sabena, Marilivia Minnici
Reportage editor
Marco Bettini
Communication
Marta Della Giustina, Beatrice Vallorani
Organization and Logistics
Giulia Belfiore
Graphic Design
Fionda
Translations
Loredana Barozzino
Organizational Secretariat
Dana Segovia
Administration
Aline Nomis, Enza Brunero
Photo and video
Ello Studio