Exhibition - The Founding Mothers and Fathers of the European Union 2019

The Europe Direct of the City of Venice, information point of the European Union active in the Veneto region, proposes the didactic exhibition "The Founding Mothers and Fathers of the European Union", which merges two exhibition routes: one of the Founding Fathers based on official documentation of the European Commission and that of the Founding Mothers built on a project of the La Sapienza University of Rome, result of the work of the researcher Maria Pia Di Nonno (with the portraits of Giulia Del Vecchio), for which the Department for European Policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers collaborates for national dissemination and has won the Altiero Spinelli Prize for Outreach: spreading knowledge about Europe- First Edition 2017.

The exhibition is dedicated to the 9 women and 11 men who inspired the creation of the European Union in which we live today.

Founding Mothers:
Sofia Corradi
Ursula Hirschmann
Fausta Deshormes
Maria De Unterrichter
Ada Rossi
Sophie Scholl
Simone Veil Jacob
Eliane Vogel Polsky
Louise Weiss

Founding Fathers:
Konrad Adenauer
Joseph Bech
Johan Willem Beyen
Winston Churchill
Alcide De Gasperi 
Walter Hallstein
Sicco Mansholt
Jean Monnet
Robert Schuman
Paul-Henri Spaak
Altiero Spinelli

The main intention of the exhibition is to emphasize how these women and men were convinced that the people of Europe, while remaining proud of their identity and their national history, were determined to overcome the old divisions and build together their common destiny.

The exhibition is divided into 17 panels which combine drawings and photographs to a series of bilingual texts, written in Italian and English, in order to reach national and international audiences.
The exhibition was produced and launched on the occasion of  Europe Day on May 9, 2014 in Venice. From that date it is touring around the territory:

- in 2015 in the high schools of the Veneto region (2015 edition)
- in 2016 in the institutional headquarters of Europe Direct Veneto partners and the Province of Verona (2016 edition)
- in 2017 in the high schools of Veneto and the institutional headquarters of Europe Direct Veneto partners (2017 edition)
- in 2018 in the high schools of Veneto and the institutional offices of the Europe Direct Veneto partners

Calendar 2019:

• PONTE SAN NICOLO' 8-28 February 2019, Municipality of Ponte San Nicolò, Viale del Lavoro 1, Ponte San Nicolò (PD)
• PADUA 8 March- 5 April 2018, High School "A.Modigliani", via degli Scrovegni 30 - Padua (PD)
• VENICE 6-31May 2018, High School "R.Franchetti", Corso del Popolo 82 Mestre-Venice  (VE)

The aim of the exhibition is to spread the understanding of the European Union and citizenship among European citizens through the knowledge of the common European history.

For further information:
Europe Direct del Comune di Venezia
free line 800 496200
fax 041 2748182
www.comune.venezia.it/europedirect
infoeuropa@comune.venezia.it