Educational services

Museums for Families On Demand

Muve Education offers fun activities and exciting educational tours ‘on demand’ in all of the Fondazione’s museums, and including the principal temporary exhibitions, to enable visitors of all ages to enjoy the museums with the family in a natural and playful way, doing something fun and involving. The activities, led by specialised museum educators, for non-formal groups of up to a maximum of 10 people (min 1 max 4 adults, families with children and young people aged 5 to 14), can take place every day, during museum opening hours and at specific times, by independent online booking, subject to availability.

 

How to take part
The activities need to be booked online >>>

What and when:
– Workshop or in-depth activities, educational tours and routes
– Average duration 1.30 hours
– All year round

Target audience:
– families with children aged 5 to 14

How to book:
– online booking: click on the red ‘choose and book’ button ➝ tick the ‘families at the museum on-demand’ box ➝ click on the activity of your choice and follow the instructions

Prices and payment:

  • Educational activity: €100 (payment in advance online, by bank transfer or credit card) up to max. 10 participants (min. 1 max. 4 adults; no ad-hoc groups but only pre-established groups allowed: e.g. 1 adult and 1 child or 2 adults and from 1 to 9 children; 2 adults and from 1 to 8 children, 3 adults and from 1 to 7 children, 4 adults and from 1 to 6 children);
  • Admission to the museum: included (the purchase of an activity for families also includes the entrance ticket to the museum, to be collected in any case at the ticket office upon presentation of the activity reservation).
  • The service is confirmed once payment for the educational activity has been made, at least 10 days before the date booked. A booking made in good time ensures a better service.
  • Last-minute bookings will be accepted subject to availability: requests must be sent to education@fmcvenezia.it (payment in advance by credit card only). Weekend requests will be accepted, subject to availability, by no later than 12 noon on Friday.

Information
ITINERARIES AND ACTIVITIES MUVE EDUCATION

– Telephone: +39 041 2700370 (hours: 9.30-12.30 Mondays and Wednesdays)
– Email education@fmcvenezia.it (from Monday to Friday, excluding holidays)
Activities can be booked online here: CHOOSE AND BOOK >>> except for LAST MINUTE requests which must be made, subject to availability, exclusively by telephone or e-mail.

 

THE ACTIVITIES

 

DOGE’S PALACE

1. The Lion Hunt
What better than a lion, the very symbol of Venice, to lead children on a most unusual trip around the Doge’s Palace?! In this ‘lion hunt’ they must find various painted and sculpted depictions of the animal throughout the Palace, and “win” some items that, put together, will result in a lion-like surprise to take home.
The activity also includes a short visit to the Bridge of Sighs and the New Prisons.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish, Russian.
For families with children aged 5-10

2. The Palace with a tale to tell
This interactive visit is designed to enable participants to discover the history and artistic wealth of the Palace. Divided into stages, it uses games, hidden clues, stories and legends to engage the children, each of whom will have an activity book that they can take away with them and then use for follow-up work or at home. The activities and level of information all vary depending upon the age-level of the students.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish, Russian.
For families with children aged 11-14

3. A perfect Venetian crime. Find the culprit in the Doge’s Palace
This adventurous tour winds through all of the most significant areas of the Palace – from the courtyard, to the State Halls and the prisons – in the attempt to discover the numerous clues that will shed light on an intricate affair that took place at the time of Doge Francesco Foscari.
The itinerary includes a visit to the Bridge of Sighs and the New Prisons.
Duration: 2 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish
For families with children aged 8-13


 

CORRER MUSEUM

The Art detective
Children engage with the Picture Gallery of the Correr Museum in a playful manner.
Story-telling opens the way to the discovery of details and the solution of puzzles, all of which teach the children how to look at pictures and understand them.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French.
For families with children aged 6-12


 

CA’ REZZONICO – Museum of 18th-century Venice

1. Canaletto, Venice and… its gondolas
In the monumental entrance hall on the ground floor, the Ca’ Rezzonico museum houses Laura, the oldest gondola in Venice , which certainly belonged to a patrician family. But how many stories and secrets can a gondola tell us? We will discover it together, then move on to the second floor of the museum, where we will observe the gondolas depicted in the famous views by Canaletto and other painters that allow us to “enter” the life of eighteenth-century Venice. But that’s not all: in the workshop, against a backdrop taken from Canaletto, after building it with our own hands, we will insert a “real” small 3D gondola that we can colour and reinterpret as we like! The participants will also be offered a leaflet that will suggest a circuit/game to play after the activity, exploring the places in the city portrayed by eighteenth-century landscape painters seen in the museum and comparing them with how these places look today.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French.
For families with children aged 8-14

2. How does Venice work?
Understanding how Venice is made, how it works and how it worked in the past is the first step to living it, respecting and enjoying it. Why is the urban fabric of the city, which is so dense, characterised by so many campi and corti (squares)? Why is there a wellhead in every square? Why do the chimneys have such bizarre shapes? How do the houses and palaces stand in the water? These and many other questions will be answered in a special itinerary in which Ca’ Rezzonico lends itself perfectly as example and at the same time as a perfect observation point. We will start from the museum to reach the nearby Campo San Barnaba where we will see the wellhead in the center. Then we’ ll enter again at Ca’ Rezzonico by the water entrance to the palace on the Grand Canal.It is that here our exploration starts in search of answers to the above questions, and searching for the answers will lead us all the way up… to the attic! Each experience will then be documented and summarised in the workshop, during which the participants will put together a really special board they can take home in a “smart” version.
Duration: 2 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French.
For families with children aged 8-14


 

CA’ PESARO – International Gallery of Modern Art

My art Gallery
After observing some selected Ca’ Pesaro masterpieces discovering their details and tracing their movements with ‘new eyes’, as in the case of Rodin’s “The Burghers of Calais”, the young participants will become true museologists by rearranging the works of ‘their’ museum through a diorama.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish, Russian.
For families with children aged 5-14

Trans-form with music and colours
Direct observation of Kandinsky’s masterpiece “White Zig-Zags’, provides an excellent starting point for an active workshop in which the children after having familiarised themselves with geometric shapes, lines and colours, can try their hand at a true ‘collective’ artistic performance in which the individual shapes, transferred into the space of a long white sheet, become the protagonists of new figures and new stories.
The activity lends itself to deepening topological concepts relating to shapes, but also to an undestanding and knowledge of colours.
Duration: 2 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish.
For families with children aged 4-10


 

PALAZZO MOCENIGO

1. The fashion game at Palazzo Mocenigo
How did people live in a Venetian palace? What clothes did the gentlemen and ladies wear on different occasions of the day? Who were the ‘muskers’? Why were perfumes produced in Venice? The furnishings, paintings, accessories, clothes and raw materials – all there to be sniffed! – of Palazzo Mocenigo tell the story of fashions and customs in eighteenth-century Venice, in a mix of opulence, elegance and cosmetics. An interactive path with many things to discover and do, with paper dolls to ‘dress up’, in order to understand the complex ritual of dressing and continue the ‘journey’ of knowledge at home.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French.
For families with children aged 7-14

2. Hunt the Perfume
Having visited the part of the museum dedicated to the history of perfumes, to the raw materials and techniques used in their preparation, the children are involved in an activity that draws upon a number of senses. Using special teaching materials, they work in teams to explore the tactile and olfactory properties of natural raw materials – some in common use, some rather more rare. Gradually learning to identify these materials and their associations, they move step by step to the refined world of the fragrances whose complex combinations are at the origin of all perfumes.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French.
For families with children aged 5-8

3. The World in a fabric
A workshop to discover the rich textile collections of the Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo with a practical part that can be experienced through a personalized kit with wool yarns and a small wooden loom, which will then remain to the young participants.
Engaging, inclusive and characterized by a constructive multicultural approach, the activity reveals how the ancient technique of weaving, between the necessities of life and creative development, unites all cultures.
Duration: 2 hours
Languages: Italian, French
For families with children aged 8-14

4. Perfumes unveiled
The activity begins in the museum, where the history of perfume will be retraced, in a sort of “journey” between different cultures and geographical areas, and it will be possible to smell some of the most important raw materials, used by the ancient Venetian perfumers (‘muschieri’) to produce perfumes.
Then in the workshop, using the different essences, compounds and instruments of the trade, the participants learn to construct their own personal perfume, which they can take away with them at the end of the session.
With the support of Mavive Spa
Duration: 1,30 hours
For families with children aged 4-8


 

GLASS MUSEUM IN MURANO

A story of skill, sand and fire
The thousand-year craft of Venetian glass-making is recounted in a guided tour through the rooms of the museum, which house some of the famous works that made, and continue to make, the city’s glass legendary throughout the world – not only for the technical skill of its craftsmen but also for the creativity of the artists and designers who have drawn inspiration from the huge potential of glass as a material.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French.
For families with children aged 5-14


 

GLASS MUSEUM IN MURANO & ABATE ZANETTI GLASS SCHOOL

A story of skill, sand and fire (with glassworking demonstration)*
The thousand-year craft of Venetian glass-making is recounted in a guided tour through the rooms of the new museum, which house some of the famous works that made, and continue to make, the city’s glass legendary throughout the world – not only for the technical skill of its craftsmen but also for the creativity of the artists and designers who have drawn inspiration from the huge potential of glass as a material. The visit to the Glass museum combines a visual experience with the chance to actually touch some of the materials and instruments, gaining further insight into the “secrets” shared by the great master glassmakers. The itinerary is completed with a glassworking demonstration at the Abate Zanetti Glass School and a particular surprise for families.
Duration: 2 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French.
For families with children aged 5-14

*Activity suspended from 15 July to 15 September 2024


 

LACE MUSEUM IN BURANO

1. Threads in the lagoon
A guided tour to discover the rich collection of lace from the sixteenth up to the twentieth century shown in the museum, that is housed in the amazing seat of the ancient School were the complicated original techniques of this art where learnt by the young girls of the island. At the end of the visit, The participants  are also given an MUVE Education activity book (in English) suggesting an amusing itinerary that they can follow by themselves in exploring the island of Burano
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish, Russian

2. All the knots come to a head!
However complex, lace fabric is always based upon knots and weaves . But do we really know how to distinguish one from the other? Practical trial and experiment reveals just how common these knots and weaves are throughout our daily existence, and just how skilfully they can be used in arts and crafts.
After a visit to the more than two hundred rare and precious specimens of the museum, from the 16th to the 20th century, a fun game of recognition will follow with natural and artificial examples (bird’s nests, shoe laces, wicker hats and chairs, hair, sea knots …), with which the participants will learn to recognize the differences between ‘knots’ and ‘intertwining’.
The activity ends with the practical realization of a ‘basic’ weave with needle and wool thread on a particular support to be taken home.
Duration: 1,30 hours.
Languages: Italian, English, Spanish.
For families with children aged 5-11


 

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Exploring a very special museum
A visit to this museum is a fascinating experience that brings many different senses into play: in each room, touch, sight and hearing all contribute to our understanding. And each section of the museum is a complete unit, making the place a series of museums within the museum. The first “journey” one undertakes is to the origins of life on earth, exploring fossils and the world of dinosaurs. Then one looks at how natural history collections themselves have evolved, from the days of ancient explorers to those of modern scientific researchers. And finally there is a fascinating section that looks at the enormous variety in the strategies upon which the maintenance of life depends – from movement to nutrition.
Duration: 1,30 hours
Languages: Italian, English


 

CARLO GOLDONI’S HOUSE

Puppets take Centre Stage
In one of its rooms, Casa Goldoni houses a precious puppet theatre with splendid original eighteenth-century puppets. In his own Mémoires, Goldoni mentions how, in this very house, his young self had played with such a puppet theatre – perhaps similar to this (but certainly less magnificent). After a short visit to the rooms with the puppet theatre and a lively account of some scenes from Goldoni’s plays (as depicted in the set pieces located within the museum), the workshop activity guides the children to construct cardboard puppets inspired by Goldoni’s characters.
Duration: 2 h
Language: Italian, English, French
For families with children aged 5-10