Municipal Culture Debate and Budget Focus on Library and Education Initiatives
No later than one year ago, culture, with a capital “C,” was placed on the municipal council’s bench of accused. The question was raised by Plinio Boni, a minority representative who has always been linked to the world of the left.
The debate on the library and the municipal budget
It was not a discussion based on opposition between ideological factions or an attempt to codify culture from a right- or left-wing perspective. These were issues that had little, or rather nothing, to do with what was highlighted by the representative of the Cisano faction, outraged by the state of decay of the library housed in the central square, Piazza Matteotti, on the top floor of the former municipal building.
Also under scrutiny was the amount allocated in the municipal budget for cultural activities. Thirty million euros were designated, half for the purchase of books and half for the traveling university. A limited budget, as candidly admitted by the culture delegate Romano Brusco, but one that was ready to highlight the success of lessons dedicated to literature, art, poetry, music, history, and medicine.
Results and cultural initiatives
“A sign that testifies to the ‘hunger’ for culture that exists in the town,” insists Brusco, who this year has nearly doubled the number of enrolled students. “There are as many as 180 participants in the traveling university, demonstrating the growing interest generated by the initiative, fully established not only in the town, given the attendance of people coming from other areas.” The lessons are held every Wednesday at 8:30 PM in the council hall of Palazzo Gelmetti.
The lessons cover highly diverse topics aimed at an adult and elderly audience. Discussions include history and painting, theater and medicine, but especially literature, with particular attention to La Divina Commedia by Dante, Il Decamerone by Boccaccio, and le Confessioni by Sant’Agostino. An appointment dedicated to the Project Adelaide and the related new findings from studies and excavations carried out on the Garda and Bardolino Castles will also take place.
