A nice party at the Opificio, in the renovated Greenhouses where to take care of an ever-growing Business Garden and many ideas that descend to the earth from the moon and take shape, because the Golinelli Foundation has only one preclusion: "It is forbidden not to touch", according to the motto coined by the president Andrea Zanotti. "Those who work with us, from the kids, to teachers, to institutions - says Zanotti - must get their hands dirty, must go from theory to practice, from ideas to reality".
In fact, the work of the Foundation is not only a work of training young people and their teachers, but also a profound cultural work involving local authorities, research centers and associations. “We can be the enzyme – observes Zanotti – the accelerator of processes, the point of closest distance between universes that speak different languages”.
A taste of this vision of the world will be available on Monday 30 May when the Greenhouses, a new hub for innovation, will be presented at the Giardini Margherita in Bologna; a space to promote entrepreneurship among young people and support the launch of creative and innovative start-ups throughout the region. A project that uses regional funding, the Municipality of Bologna and the Golinelli Foundation. “For us it is an investment – says Zanotti – of approximately 130 thousand euros”.
In the Serre dei Giardini in June, July and September, the Golinelli Foundation will organize the summer camp of the Business Garden, the school of entrepreneurial culture, this year centered on the theme of environmental sustainability, and aimed at 60 secondary school students. Starting from the 2016/2017 school year, training courses for teachers on entrepreneurship and digital issues will be launched. Furthermore, in agreement with the University of Bologna, the new entrepreneurship education course for university students (startuppers selected during the Startup Day Unibo 2016) will take place at the Serre, part of the Alma Mater program promoted in collaboration with the StartYouUp association.
“The Greenhouses of the Gardens are also important from a symbolic point of view – explains Zanotti – because they are daughters of us, of the Municipality and of Aster, the regional consortium for innovation. It is a collective success, the result of the cultural sharing of a project, which has allowed everyone to do their part. A bit like when we have a picnic, where we all have to bring something to eat and above all we have to share the idea of having breakfast on the grass”.
A part of the Foundation's activities will therefore materially leave the walls of the Opificio, the citadel of knowledge and learning inaugurated on 3 October and will find a new home in the Greenhouses. “In a few months – observes Zanotti – the Opificio was saturated. Next year we expect to have 150 visitors and this shows how much need there was for an initiative like this”. At the origin of this choice, however, there is above all the conviction that no one saves themselves: "if we want to do good things, useful for young people and for our country, we must share an idea of the future and of society - underlines the President of the Golinelli Foundation – with the development of the Greenhouses we have managed to take this path with the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Municipality of Bologna and with Aster, then the University of Bologna and private individuals will be added, because the best answer against unemployment the enterprise is still youthful. To create new businesses, ideas are needed, but also a direct relationship between research and product, between conception and realization, without fear of failures and mistakes. L'Opificio was born from here, from the desire to hire young people to 'workshop' and to help them find the keys to the future that sometimes they already have in their pockets. However, we need a context around us that is ready to welcome and understand. In Italy we invented the Renaissance, if we join forces and rediscover our best roots we can still compete at high levels in the world".
Furthermore, in June, for the lucky visitors to the Foundation's initiatives, of which there are so many (about one hundred thousand this year, including adults, children and teenagers) the 2015-2016 season will end with a nice party. The appointment is at the Opificio on 11 June at 17 pm, the program is free, open to all, rich and fun: ranging from workshops on the lawn and indoors, to microscope observations, 3D programming and printing, to experiments of food neuroscience. We will talk about the sky and flight on the Shuttle with the aerospace pilot Maurizio Cheli, author of the book "Tutto in un istante" (Minerva Edizioni), we will dance with the concert of the Recycled Circo Musicale, we will play games and even make a lottery. “We end on a festive note as is done with the school year – adds Zanotti – and it is right, because we integrate and innovate the school”. The event will also be an opportunity to take stock of the Opificio's first months of activity. “A future of important projects and new collaborations lies ahead - claims the founder Marino Golinelli - always in the context of the training of students and teachers, but also by providing young people with tools to support the birth of new entrepreneurial activities, because for us the Opificio Golinelli is not a landing point but a new starting point”.
