OPEN PORT – Port of Taranto – Exhibition Center: work in progress!
OPEN PORT – Port of Taranto – Exhibition Center: work in progress!
TARANTO, 20 May 2021. The Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea (AdSPMI), in line with the objectives underlying the Authority’s Three-Year Operational Plan 2020-2022 (see action no. 11 of the TOP – strategic objective “Port and Territory“) has launched and is currently coordinating the design of the port center of Taranto “Open Port – Exhibition center of the Port of Taranto”. This is aimed at popularising maritime-port culture and becoming the first port center in Southern Italy as well as a hub of immersive experiences able to connect the port with the city of Taranto, acting as a centre of education, information and interaction open to the general public.
The AdSPMI will celebrate the European Maritime Day the value of the sea as a resource by presenting to the digital community and to the entire port ecosystem of Taranto a preview of the “Open Port” project. The Authority will officially launch it, in its virtual form, at the end of the design process currently underway and which will continue until next autumn, when Open Port will also invite the general public, associations, young people, scholars and students, cultural mediators – and more! – to make original contributions to the virtual network of the exhibition centre, in order to keep the exhibition alive, participatory and topical.
The Port Center is part of the broader series of actions undertaken by the AdSPMI – in synergy with the Municipality of Taranto – aimed at opening up the port to new dynamics of development and interaction with the port city of Taranto and with the international network of port-cities, through projects aimed at raising awareness of and promoting the port’s heritage, which recognises that the sea is the greatest expression of its identity.
In this context, an unprecedented process of developing the themes and activities that will inspire the Open Port of Taranto began – and is still ongoing – thanks to the valuable collaboration with the team of professional experts in museum design and communication who are currently working to engage the network of public and private stakeholders as well as the entire Ionian port cluster in order to gather the expert input of key witnesses of the past history and current events of Taranto and its port. Men and women who, with great enthusiasm and keen participation, are helping to propagate knowledge and port anecdotes, but also sharing documentary and iconographic material, historical references and direct testimonies.
Open Port is much more than a project: it is an open building site, a path to explore not only information but also human and recreational experiences, taking shape in an original and innovative concept for the Port Centre panorama. The AdSPMI is making local involvement and listening to local needs the basis on which to build a strategic outlook from the perspective of sustainability, innovation, inclusion and a sense of belonging. A vessel – initially virtual – which, with its content and modern, shared languages, opens the doors of the port to a target group of active visitors, whether young or old, a place open to new ideas and new routes: an Open Port.
“With Open Port,” said AdSPMI President Sergio Prete, “the Port Network Authority of the Ionian Sea is giving a boost to the ambitious project of opening the port of Taranto to its city, through the promotion of port and maritime culture as a generative factor of shared knowledge of the Ionian identity heritage. In these days we are collecting the testimonies of those who live and experience the port of Taranto on a daily basis with passion, professionalism and enthusiasm. The name Open Port was chosen not by accident: the port of Taranto is an open, living, inclusive port that aspires to become a place for the dissemination of port culture through the promotion of its past, present and future history’”
Looking forward to Open Port… Follow the “work in progress” on the project’s social pages
