Musei Universitari Unimore

Regional Museum of Natural Sciences of Turin

http://www.mrsntorino.it/cms/

 

The Regional Museum of Natural Sciences of Turin has its seat in the building of the former San Giovanni Battista Hospital, which was erected at the end of 17th century by Amedeo di Castellamonte and completed by outstanding architects. The hospital, at that time called Ospedale Maggiore, had always been a model for the medical science of its time since its erection.

In 1978, with a regional law (L.R. 37/78), Piemonte Region establishes the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences and fixes its prestigious seat.

In 1980, Piemonte Region and University of Turin sign an agreement for the consignment to the museum of the naturalistic collection belonging to the University museums. Thus, the museum starts the organization, arrangement and cataloguing of the collections for preservation, exhibition, and didactics aims. It starts the constitution of its own heritage through the organization of study and research campaigns, as well as the gathering and acquisition of collections of historical and scientific value.

In 1980, the exposition activity of the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences inaugurates its first exhibitions: "Il Celacanto", "La Collezione Spinola", "I cristalli di quarzo" – dedicated to collections of great scientific value. In 1981, the activity goes further with the exhibition “Lepidoptera” then reopened in 1990, and again in 1992 with "Mamenchi e Tsintao" dedicated to the discovery of the Chinese dinosaurs. Since 1995, with "Amphibia e Licheni", an intense exposition, with its climax in "Dinosaurios Argentinos" and "Inuit e popoli del ghiaccio", has started.

In 1989, Piemonte Region buys the Rea Botanical Garden in Val Sangone, a few kilometers from Turin, for the activities of experimentation, research, didactics and divulgation on the collections of live plants and on botanical themes of particular interest.

As to its scientific part, the museum is now set out in the sections of Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Petrography-Geology, Paleontology, and Zoology. The whole space for museum activities is 22.000 square meters, with a foreseen area for expositions of about 7300 square meters, now 4300 at disposal.

It has a specialist library, with 12.000 volumes and 1250 periodicals, and it has a Didactic Centre. It manages an intense scientific editorial activity, publishing a semestral multilingual newsletter, specialist monographic series, catalogs of the collections of the museum and other institutions, acts of conferences, guides to the temporary exhibitions illustrating the activity of the museum.

Numerous are the activities of the Didactic Centre, with a series of services such as didactic laboratories, the creation of naturalistic itineraries, guided tours and training courses for teachers, as well as the production of teaching aids.

 

Didactic and scientific activities:

•           DIDACTIC ACTIVITY: http://www.mrsntorino.it/cms/images/didattica/Quaderno2014-15-p%20singola.pdf

•           RESEARCH:

Botany

The program of museology research Vegetal Life with its various activities prepares or acquires specimen of plants, artefacts and objects of vegetal origin, and parts of plants prepared for exhibition finalities. Among the materials of this collection we count thorny parts of plants, ethno botanical specimen from Madagascar, seeds and fruits, dried logs, methacrylate dried plants.

Zoology

The Zoology Section staff carries out studies on materials and naturalists that have contributed to the enrichment of the zoological collections, in particular the ones of Turin, as well as analysis and taxonomic checks on different animal groups.

Particular research paths regard studies on the distribution of mollusks in North-West Italy and biodiversity and preservation of amphibians and reptiles in Europe and Madagascar . The Regional Museum of Natural Science of Turin has been collaborating with different institutions of Madagascar for many years.
 

THE NETWORK OF SCIENTIFIC NATURALISTIC MUSEUMS OF PIEMONTE

Through an agreement the University of Turin has entrusted the Museum the management of an important heritage of collections. Duty of  the Museum is to grant its preservation, cataloguing, and availability for study and research activities, exhibitions, didactics, etc. It is an important and remarkable commitment that the Regional Administration intends to revive and grant through a progressive recovery of the museum structure, the adjustment of the staff, the revival of the museum activities after years of limited and inconstant political cultural and practical attention. In 2006 the Museum Scientific Committee was restored, with five members in representation of the University. The procedure to assign ideation, project, realization and outfitting of the so-called Lotto XIV on the 2.000 square meters of the ground floor of the Museum has started. At the same time, the scheduling and realization of an integrated ensemble of activities has moved its first steps. It comprehends the recovery of the whole structure, the preservation, definitive placement, and cataloguing of the collections, the development of an intense and qualified activity of temporary exhibitions, the realization of activities to communicate and divulge science, the strengthening of didactic activities, and the resuming of publication work. The schedule takes particularly into consideration the renewal and enlargement of contacts with other scientific museum institutions, both in Italy and abroad, and the development of relations with other regional museums to define common and integrated activities as well as to create a regional system of naturalistic and scientific museums.

On the one hand the picture painted is rich and precious for the collections and specimen, for the historical events linked to their finding and constitution, for the value of the staff. On the other hand it is critical for deficiency of resources, personnel, and sometimes attention and interest from the institutions. Moreover, the latter show scarce awareness of the scientific, cultural, educational, and social importance of such realities for the communities. For all these reasons, it is strategic to set a path for the constitution of a “regional network of naturalistic and scientific museums and collections”. Preserving and enhancing the local peculiarities and autonomies in management, the network will grant an homogeneous and balanced development of the system on the whole territory. It will coordinate and integrate the activities (research, preservation, didactics, exhibitions, communication, etc.), the programs, the professionalities, and the resources. It will optimize the employment of financial resources at disposal, valorize and optimize the staffs in a logic of collaboration and integration of activities and functions. It will grant exchanges of experiences and development of common initiatives. It will as well activate specific agreements or understandings among local institutions and the Region targeted to definition, support, and execution of specific activities such as research, cataloguing and filing, exhibition, training, communication.
 

- Multimedia project – Experimenta Project

Experimenta Project takes its origins in 1985 as a pilot project of the Department for Culture of Piemonte Region. Its target was the promotion and diffusion of scientific culture in a playful and involving way. It soon became a successful format. It matched science, technology, arts and entertainment, arousing the public’s attention toward the world, its laws and variables. Original and fascinating exhibits conducted the visitor in a direct and immersive experience: reproduced environments, fanciful machines, virtual scenes and ingenious instruments explained the scientific phaenomena and proposed a coherent and comprehensible picture of the evolution in the scientific technological research. Since 2012 the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences has been managing the heritage of Experimenta. Single machines or groups of exhibits have been used for scientific events and to complete exhibitions and productions of small spaces for divulgation.

- Interactiv technological exhibits

 Museum services:                                    

- LIBRARY

- PUBLISHING ACTIVITY


Online services:

Didactic activities book

Virtual tour (static)

Format for temporary exhibition loan

Forms for guided tour booking


Openings:

THE MUSEUM IS MOMENTARY CLOSED FOR RESTORATION but the temporary seat is open

Temporary Museum - Corso Verona 15/C 10152 Torino

Hours

Wednesdays to Fridays: from 15 to 19

Saturdays and Sundays: from 10 to 19

Mondays and Tuesdays: closed

Free entry


Contacts:

Temporary Museum

Tel. +39 011 4324591

Toll-free number

800 329 329

Secretary MRSN

museo.mrsn@regione.piemonte.it

Tel. +39 011 4326316 Fax +39 011 4326320