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Milan, May 26 2021 – The former library of the IIS Cremona in Viale Marche is reborn and once again becomes an asset for all, usable by the school itself, by the community that refers to the school and the neighborhood and by the city.

From today the library will begin its activity as a multifunctional and cultural production center open to the participation and aggregation of citizens, without losing its original identity as a library, but with a new vocation: the collection of texts made available to readers it will be more generalist, but will be dedicated to the themes of legality, active citizenship and participation, organized in an innovative way thanks to the support of the representatives of the Milanese library system.

This morning in the presence of the councilor for Active Participation and Citizenship, Lorenzo Lipparini and the representatives of the Circola Associations - Culture and ideas in movement Municipality 9, Metropolitan City and Cariplo Foundation, the new space called the Participation and Citizenship Workshop was inaugurated .

The renovated former library will be able to host numerous activities which will be defined, together with the management, by the Collaboration Agreement signed this morning by the Municipality of Milan, the Metropolitan City of Milan, Municipality 9 and the supporters of the Officina Project: there will be scientific cafés, meetings , computer courses for the elderly, projects in collaboration with associations and bodies and participation in major events such as Milano Partecipa and the Civil week.

"The building abandoned for years is now reborn – said councilor Lipparini – returning to its original function as a place of culture and community sharing, further opening up to the city thanks to the participation of citizens in the choice and management of activities. The Milan that recovers what is disused to give it back to the renewed citizens can also be seen in these targeted projects, carried out in the different neighborhoods thanks to collaboration agreements and the desire of the institutions, in this case the school, to give new life to their spaces Officina is certainly a concrete example of this spirit of initiative."

The recovery of the building is the result of the collaboration of the Cremona Higher Institute (ITE Zappa and Liceo Cremona), with the Circola associations - Culture, rights and ideas in movement. The project was carried out thanks to funding from the Cariplo Foundation used both for the structural redevelopment of the premises and for the identification of the services and activities intended to animate and characterize the space, transforming it into the workshop of participation and creativity. The renovation was carried out based on the projects signed by a team of engineers and architects who supported the association and the school from the beginning, designing and creating a space based on sustainable building criteria and attentive to the psychophysical well-being of the visitors.

The library will be able to count on its own specialist catalogue, networked with the other libraries of the Milan Library System and on sections, identified by the children, which will deal with youth issues and topics of specific literary and scientific interest. To characterize the new headquarters, again thanks to the contribution of the children, a large mural created on the entrance gate and a small botanical garden. Inside a vast space equipped for screening films, with web radio, the editorial office of the school newspaper and the various functions: film club, place for meetings and debates, venue for courses and workshops, assisted study centre.