Hope Carrasquilla, the former principal of the Tallahassee Classical School in Florida, fired after an art history lesson during which Michelangelo’s David was shown, judged “pornographic” by some parents, will be next Saturday, April 29, in Florence, in Palazzo Vecchio, at the invitation of Mayor Dario Nardella. The teacher will participate in a meeting that will take place at 11.30 in the Sala degli Elementi which will be attended by the mayor himself, Simonetta Brandolini D’Adda, president of Friends of Florence who collaborated in the organization of the initiative, and Cristina Acidini, president of the Academy of Drawing Arts. Moderator will be the journalist Gerardo Greco.
«Confusing art with pornography – underlines Nardella – is ridiculous and also offensive. The nude is part of the art. Kids don’t need censorship or crusades but a serious education that explains what art history is and how important it is for the development of civilization».
«As Friends of Florence, an American foundation that has been working for the good and conservation of the Florentine and Tuscan artistic heritage for twenty-five years, we are pleased to welcome Professor Hope Carrasquilla alongside Mayor Dario Nardella. – underlines the president Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda -. We will receive you with great respect, and we will take the opportunity to reflect together with you and with the Florentine institutions so that the transfer of the values of Western civilization through Italian art and culture is always possible and never hindered by your ignorance. Over the past twenty-five years, Friends of Florence has restored hundreds of works of art, most of them supported by American donors. Millions of American citizens travel to Italy every year to visit the Renaissance masterpieces, they send their children to study in Florence, Rome and other cities of art. If this happens it is because the majority of people and the American people understand the importance of Italian art and culture in the formation of contemporary citizens».