“Sciroppo di teatro”, cultural welfare according to ATER

“Sciroppo di teatro” is a theatre project for children and families organised by ATER Fondazione – Circuito Regionale Multidisciplinare dell’Emilia-Romagna. It is an innovative cultural welfare project, which is one of a kind in Italy, combining health services with cultural offerings.

The project aims to develop a systematic operation incorporating culture, health and welfare to contribute to the wellbeing of children and their families, who have been severely affected by the pandemic, to support the production of children’s theatre, a sector that is particularly struggling due to schools’ absence from theatres, and to expand the audience for children’s theatre.

Through the project, paediatric clinics and pharmacies provide children and families with reduced tickets in the form of “illustrated prescriptions” for the “Sciroppo di teatro” performances, consisting of children’s theatre shows created specifically for the project throughout the region, for a total of seventy-four performances in twenty-two participating municipalities.

The project also aims to reach a new audience, made up of families who do not usually take their children to the theatre. Communication plays a crucial role: it has to be clear in order to explain how the project works and what it is all about, as well as effective in order to generate interest in an activity that is almost new to many families.

“Sciroppo di teatro” also offers ATER new possibilities for positioning itself on a national level as regards the subject of cultural welfare and is therefore a strategically important project.

Moving between these two communication and positioning needs, BAM! created the project identity and communication materials for the first edition on behalf of ATER.

Starting with a strategic brainstorming session with ATER to share the objectives and identify the positioning themes, BAM! took care of the coordinated image with the assistance of the illustrator Matteo Pagani: from the logo to the payoff and the tone of voice, all the way through to the design of the communication materials for the project launch.