Street art in Turin. 9 itineraries to discover urban art Street art in Turin | Page 17

one of the most innovative and lively areas of the city. Among its old streets, in fact, there is the MAU, the Museum of Urban Art. Founded in 1995 to redevelop the area and supported from the beginning by the people that lived there, the MAU is still a unique example in Italy and, year after year, has welcomed more and more murals and artworks, reaching the current number of 172 works. To find one’s way around such a maze, the site provides visitors with a map, showing the locations of the various works. The most fascinating aspect of the museum is undoubtedly its history: after an initial phase of urban restructuring and architectural revaluation of the area, in fact, in 1995 the citizens themselves wanted to establish a Committee for Urban Redevelopment composed mainly of university teachers and artists. In addition to the initiative, a number of voluntary writers have also created the first 13 works. Given how much the people of Turin liked it, the Municipality decided to be part of the project, bringing the total number of murals up to 17. In 2000 the MAU was born, and eleven years later it was officially recognized by the City of Turin as a museum structure and therefore included in the Map of Museums of Piedmont. This is just the beginning, since in a just few years the museum managed to involve 104 artists in 137 masonry and environmental works scattered in the old part, to which 17