The Artistic Industrial Museum
A short history

The Artistic Industrial Museum, alongside its added school-workshops, was founded in 1882 by Prince Gaetano Filangieri and Demetrio Salazar, with Domenico Morelli, Filippo Palizzi and Giovanni Tesorone' s collaboration, in order to establish in southern Italy the Applied Arts culture.
The Museum distinguishes itself from other apparently similar metropolitan museums, because it was founded as a whole with the school-workshops where young students received specialized training that enabled them to become masters in the arts of ceramics, metal processing, workmanship, cabinet making and goldsmithery.
In order to provide a more complete educational approach, particular attention was paid to the development of the industrial manufacture which combines form and function.
As a matter of fact, G.Filangieri was also the founder of the Museo civico Filangieri and the A.I.M. links to it for its finalities, in fact the museum was intended not only as a simple artefacts storage place, but as a sort of short applied arts history course of great didactic value, where samples of all the manufacturing activities where shown to practically establish a continuous comparison between the ancient and the modern.
The Museum's didactic finalities are underlined by the presence of a botanical garden used for natural models studies, a gypsoteca and a library, which constitute a complete centre aimed at the applied arts studies. Today one of the Museum's sections called "produzioni", is dedicated to the most remarkable selection of work designed and produced by its past students and tutors.
The Museum is located in the ex Bourbons navy building, former convent of Santa Maria della Soledad (XVI century).