Conference Program

This paper presents an art-based educational and therapeutic project developed primarily by Roma activists, reflecting broader forms of Roma civil rights mobilization and community self-advocacy documented across Europe (Kóczé & Ryder, 2019), aimed at fostering children’s awareness of their ethnic and cultural identity. While the long-term goal is the preservation and intergenerational transmission of Roma cultural heritage, the project also promotes the development of a bicultural identity (Roma and Italian), although most families already hold Italian citizenship. The issue at stake is therefore not formal citizenship but symbolic recognition and the possibility of negotiating multiple belongings within a context of structural marginalization.

The project was carried out during the 2023/2024 academic year at the COT (Center for Temporary Hospitality) on Via Novara in Milan and involved approximately fifteen Roma children of different ages. The families experienced severe disruption following the dismantling of long-established camps where extended family networks had lived together. Over the past four decades, Italian municipalities have concentrated Roma populations—often citizens not formally recognized as a minority—into peripheral “camps.” These environments are associated with systemic marginalization, informal economies, precarious housing conditions, and high levels of school dropout, as highlighted in socio-institutional analyses of educational inequality (Besozzi, 2017).

Within this context, school attendance is often intermittent due to material constraints and mobility patterns. The current EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) (European Commission, 2020) promotes the dismantling of camps in favor of individual housing solutions; however, many Italian Roma families resist such arrangements, expressing a preference for communal living. This tension reveals a crucial point: educational inclusion cannot be addressed solely at the level of the individual child or family but must engage broader community structures and forms of social organization.

In response to these challenges, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, through its Artistic Therapeutics course and in collaboration with the association Upre Roma, designed an art workshop centered on Romani fairy tales. The project was conceived as a symbolic act of cultural recognition. Stories were read collectively and illustrated by the children with the support of trainee students and educators. The drawings were later transformed into sculptural and installation works, translating graphic gestures into three-dimensional forms and enabling collective reinterpretation of narrative imagery.

The methodological approach prioritized process over technical skill, emphasizing experiential engagement with materials, relational quality, and the expressive capacities of each participant (Leavy, 2018). The workshop fostered empowerment during a period of transition and instability, increasing agency within structurally unequal contexts (Thompson, 2015).

The resulting artworks were exhibited at the Del Sarenge Festival—the first Roma festival, held in Milan—offering public visibility to narratives that often remain marginalized. Drawing on interviews with participants and organizers, the paper discusses outcomes and challenges, highlighting the potential of arts-based educational practices to address educational poverty and social exclusion through identity support, community engagement, and the creation of inclusive public spaces.