Open Archives: in the Province the exhibition dedicated to Sport as a social value

Friday 25 November 2022 — 2.45pm

“Sport for everyone. Participation and social value” is the title of the documentary exhibition created by the Province of Livorno as part of the review Open Archivesthe event promoted by the Tuscany Region, which from November 28th to December 3rd puts the valorisation of the historical archives and the precious documentary heritage preserved in them at the center of the initiatives. To sports in fact, the tenth edition of the review is dedicated, which sees the adhesion of the Network of Historical Archives of the Documentary System of the Provincial Territory of Livorno with a series of proposals and appointments related to the theme of sport and activities recreation and free time between the 1800s and 1900s.

The exhibition, set up in the entrance of Grand Ducal Palacewill be open from Monday 28 November, with the display of a series of documents that bear witness to the commitment of the Province of Livorno in the promotion of sport and widespread access to sporting practice in its territory. Among the most interesting documents in this sense, one can consult a series of papers relating to the 1st Regional Conference of Sport, organized on 18 November 1972 by the Provincial Administration, where a new vision of sport emerges from the lively confrontation between institutions, which broadens And deepens the reflections already started in the same year with a series of other initiatives, including the conference “Local institutions and sport as a social service”, again promoted by the Province of Livorno on 18 March in San Vincenzo. In the interventions of the conference, the focus is on the classist conditions in the practice of certain sports activities, accessible only to the privileged classes and it is stated that it is necessary to re-discuss and change the Italian sports policy in its guidelines, structures and funding, making sport within the reach of everyone and giving it as much a community, social, educational dimension as possible. In the following years there will be various initiatives which will implement this political and social objective, including the inauguration, on 30 July 1989, of the archery range in Stagno (Collesalvetti), an official shooting range approved by FITARCO (Italian Archery Federation) , one of the few courses in Italy completely structured for the physically handicapped. But as early as the 1950s, the Provincial Administration was close to sport and its athletes, organizing a series of award ceremonies, as evidenced by the many photographs exhibited in the exhibition, also preserved in the photographic heritage of the institution . Thanks to a non-elitist vision of sport, the politics of the local administrations begin to sow those seeds which will subsequently make the territory of the Province of Livorno not only one of the most medal-winning nationwide, but above all one with the highest number of active practitioners in the various disciplines, still always in a good position in the rankings among the provinces with the highest rate of sportsmanship.
Among the most representative initiatives we find the “Sport for all” event, of which the Province coordinates the events throughout the territory and in the context of which the Sportsmanship Prize was awarded, named in memory of the journalist Paolo Valenti. Sport as a “community and popular” good, capable of moving thousands of enthusiasts, is instead represented by the Giro d’Italia. In the Archives of Tourism on the Island of Elba, recently kept in the provincial premises, we find traces of the inaugural stage of the 76th Giro d’Italia in 1993 which wound entirely along the provincial roads of Elba. But the Giro, which stopped for the first time in Livorno in 1921, has passed through our territory numerous times. On the occasion of the passages made in more recent years (2006 departure from Livorno, 2008 arrival in San Vincenzo, 2011 arrival in Livorno), the Province has been actively present, coordinating numerous collateral sporting and cultural activities. On display is the publication created by the Organization which recalled all the appointments of the Giro in Livorno. The exhibition can be visited at the following times: Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9-13, Tuesday and Thursday 9-17.