MUSEO DELLA TESSITURA - Alice Hallgarten

Alice Hallgarten (New York 1874 - Leysin 1911)
Alice Hallgarten was born in New York and after she spent several years in Germany she moved to Rome. Here she did charitable work in the San Lorenzo quarter and met the Barron Leopold Franchetti with whom she dedicated herself to numerous charitable activities for impoverished.. They were married in 1900. In 1901 she founded the Montesca School housed inside the villa after which she founded the Rovigliano School both offered a free education to the farmer's children up to the sixth grade. The aim was to provide training to the farmer's children that would be useful in daily life. These were avant-garde schools with innovative teaching methods based on Maria Montessori's teaching methods. At the school in Montesca she perfected her well-known curriculum. In her teaching great importance is given to direct observation and the study of nature through gardening and botany. Among the other causes established by the baroness was also the Workshop of Umbrian Textiles, founded in 1908 as part of a larger project having the aim to better the living standards in the county side. Through the process of progressive self-empowerment with education and work training. Today Villa Montesca is a center in which organizes higher education and professional training courses as well as cultural conventions of international relevance.


In the photograph: Alice Hallgarten, Tacchini photo archives