Touching beauty
Maria Montessori Bruno Munari

Is it possible to perceive, to recognise and to appreciate beauty using your sense of touch? What happens if you've lost your sight, or never had it in the first place? Is your enjoyment of beauty lost for good, or can you rediscover it in some other way?

"Touching Beauty. Montessori, Munari" explores all the richness of these questions in the thoughts, ideas and original work of Maria Montessori and Bruno Munari, two of the most illustrious figures in modern Italian culture. While moving in very different contexts, they both asked themselves these questions, which have now become the object of a specific investigation and reflection on the aesthetic value of tactility.

New essays by Aldo Grassini, Alfio Alfio Albani, Alberto Munari, Mariangela Scarpini, Rita Scocchera, Silvana Sperati, Andrea Sòcrati and Fabio Fornasari explore a vast array of themes ranging from education and cognitive potential to the beauty of gesture and the importance of shapes, materials and tactile narratives.

The book is being published to tie in with the exhibition organised by the Comune di Ancona's Museo Tattile Statale Omero, TACTUS. Centre for contemporary arts, multisensoriality and interculturality, in conjunction with the Fondazione Chiaravalle Montessori and with the Associazione Bruno Munari.

Maria Montessori – (1870–1952) – was an Italian educator, pedagogist, philosopher, doctor of medicine, child neuropsychiatrist and scientist internationally renowned for the method of education named after her and adopted in thousands of kindergartens, elementary, middle and upper schools all over the world. She was one of the first Italian women to obtain a degree in medicine.

Bruno Munari - (1907–98) – was one of the greatest names in art, design and the graphic arts of the 20th century, invariably devoting his creative energy to experimentation but with a special focus on the world of children and their games. His creations in the fields of painting, sculpture, design, photography and education embrace a multitude of different styles as they follow the thread of his own highly personal originality.