VENICE, Veneto — We spoke to Alexia Boro, director of the Procuratie, the home of The Human Safety Net, on the third floor of the 16th-century building overlooking Piazza San Marco. The Procuratie reopened in April 2022 following a restoration by David Chipperfield, with Generali, Italy’s largest insurance company, handing the space back to Venice and to the world. Boro oversees a permanent interactive show called A World of Potential, which invites visitors to train their character strengths the way they might train muscles at the gym. The foundation works with families with children under six and with refugees across cities including Warsaw, Mestre and Palermo. Entry is free, and this year’s Art Studio show, We Rise by Lifting Others by Marinella Senatore, was born from workshops with the foundation’s beneficiary families.
Q: When did the Procuratie reopen, and what changed?
“This journey starts in April 2022, when after years of closure, with the restoration by David Chipperfield, we opened to the public. Generali gave back to Venice and to the world this 16th-century building, which for many reasons had not been accessible. The third floor in Piazza San Marco became the home of The Human Safety Net foundation.”
Q: What does the foundation actually do?
“We help the most vulnerable people at risk of social exclusion, families with children up to six, and refugees. We work on parenting, early childhood, quality time between parents and children. For refugees, inclusion through work, which means training, coaching, startups, and helping them find a job. The keyword is inclusion.”
Q: Tell us about Marinella Senatore.
“We do Art for Social Impact. Every year we invite an artist whose work can become an experience of change. I had worked with Marinella years ago at the Guggenheim on a project called Kids Creative Lab, a performance with many children in Piazza San Marco. Participation is the keyword she uses. She ran workshops with families from our programmes in Warsaw, Mestre and Palermo, and from those workshops were born the works in the show, We Rise by Lifting Others.”
Q: A World of Potential is the permanent show. Explain it.
“An interactive path with installations on creativity, perseverance, curiosity, teamwork, social intelligence, gratitude. Positive psychology tells us we should treat our character strengths like muscles. The way we do CrossFit, we should train them. In Venice I always use this metaphor, we build bridges in a society that is more and more polarised, where everything is black or white. Here we look for dialogue.”
Q: How does a visitor get in?
“Anyone can come. There is a ticket desk in Piazza San Marco and entry is free. We are open every day except Tuesday, until October 31 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from November to March from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.”
