Salesian Missions, Salesian World News

The Missionary Ethnological Museum at Colle Don Bosco Among the Founders of the MIPAM Network

(ANS – Castelnuovo Don Bosco) – The Missionary Ethnological Museum (MEM) at Colle Don Bosco is the protagonist of a new relaunch adventure through its formal membership of the newly established MIPAM Network – Italian Museums with World Heritage.

After a series of preliminary meetings held in Milan (November 2023), Parma (April 2024), Turin (January 2025), and Florence (June 2025), in which the MEM has always participated, the concrete formation of the Network has now been achieved. This is the first important event for MEM in this particular year, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the first Salesian missionary expedition and highlights the relaunching of the cultural importance of the mission desired by Don Bosco.

MIPAM is the national network that brings together Italian museums engaged in the conservation and enhancement of collections from around the world, with the aim of promoting dialogue, the sharing of best practices, and transparency in the management and care of this heritage.

On 10 June, the final meeting to establish the network took place at the Stibbert Museum in Florence. The new network aims to be a point of reference for directors, curators, conservators, and archivists of state, municipal, university, missionary, and private institutions.

Italy, in fact, holds a large number of non-European works and artefacts that have been in the country since the 15th century. Many of these collections are to be found in little-known institutions that today, thanks to MIPAM, can count on a network of specialists and inter-museum collaborations.

The network includes institutions that are very different from each other in terms of institutions, history, and collecting, but which together share the mission of fostering research, increasing accessibility, and supporting the value placed on non-European heritages and their complex cultural contexts of reference and origin.

Now these different institutions have a stable reference for developing collaborative projects, strengthening the dialogue between the national and international spheres, sharing common problems, and comparing their respective good practices.

MIPAM will organise regular meetings, propose the development of joint projects such as exhibitions, publications, educational activities, and public programs that enhance a common tangible and intangible heritage.

With MIPAM, a new awareness is born:  a museum in Italy that is more connected, informed, and ready to face contemporary challenges related to history, ethics, and the care of global cultural heritage.

The founding museums are the following:

  • CAM Cultures and Mission, Cultural Pole of the Missionaries of the Consolata – Turin
  • Castello D’Albertis Museum of World Cultures – Genoa
  • University Centre for Museums, University of Padua
  • MIC Foundation International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza – Onlus
  • Uffizi Galleries, Florence
  • MUCIV – Museum of Civilisations, Rome
  • MUDEC – Museum of Cultures, Milan
  • City Museums of Reggio Emilia
  • Civic Museum of Modena
  • Enrico Caffi” Civic Museum of Natural Sciences – Bergamo
  • Civic Museum – Tortona (Alessandria)
  • Civic Ethnographic Museum ‘Giovanni Podenzana’ – La Spezia
  • Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico dei Missionari Saveriani – Parma
  • MAO Museum of Oriental Art (Fondazione Torino Musei) – Turin
  • Museum of Oriental Art – Venice
  • Museum of Oriental Art – Mazzocchi Collection – Coccaglio (Brescia)
  • Museo d’Arte Orientale ‘Edoardo Chiossone’ – Genoa
  • Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, University of Turin
  • Egyptian Museum – Turin
  • Castiglioni Ethno-Archaeological Museum – Varese
  • Colle Don Bosco Missionary Ethnology Museum – Castelnuovo Don Bosco (Asti)
  • PIME Museum of Peoples and Cultures – Milan
  • Stibbert Museum – Florence
  • Palazzo dei Musei – Varallo (Vercelli)
  • Palazzo Madama – City Museum of Ancient Art (Fondazione Torino Musei) – Turin
  • University Museum System, University of Parma

The board is made up of: Marina Pugliese (director of the MUDEC – Museo delle Culture, Milan), Davide Quadrio (director of the MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, Turin), Andrea Viliani (director of the MUCIV – Museo delle Civiltà, Rome), Enrico Colle (director of the Stibbert Museum, Florence), and Don Enzo Oliviero Verzeletti (director of the Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico dei Missionari Saveriani, Parma).