AMICI DELLA NAVE ASSOCIATION 

The ‘Amici della Nave’ Association was founded in 2018 by a group of people who have been involved for many years, through work or voluntary work, in the activities of the La Nave ward of San Vittore. The Association’s objectives are twofold: to continue to support “outside” the care and treatment pathway that the inmates-patients of La Nave undertake “inside”; to promote an increasingly widespread awareness of these issues among citizens in the conviction that integration, participation, exchange, especially when oriented towards art, culture, and beauty, always represent a mutual enrichment.
Among the cultural initiatives promoted by the association are the exhibition-event ‘I’ll take you to prison’ at the Milan Triennale, the docufilm ‘EXIT’ presented in Venice in 2021 during the 78th International Film Festival, the ‘Passion’ performed in 2023 with artists from the La Scala Choir, the Choir and Orchestra of the Fenice Theatre, and with Franco Mussida, in the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan.
President of the association is lawyer Eliana Onofrio. 

THE ‘LA NAVE’ WARD OF SAN VITTORE

La Nave is a ward of the San Vittore prison dedicated to the care of inmate-patients with addiction problems. It is a service established in 2002 and is aimed at those in detention who are assessed as motivated to undertake a path of change in a context of care and empowerment. The La Nave department, headed by Dr Giuliana Negri, is part of the Penal and Penitentiary Area Addiction Service of the Santi Paolo and Carlo Socio-Sanitary Company in Milan, directed by Dr Francesco Scopelliti. Among the activities promoted in the department are the monthly magazine L’Oblò distributed free of charge by Feltrinelli, a choir, legality education courses, and sports practices.

“LA NAVE” AND “AMICI DELLA NAVE” CHOIRS

Choral singing is one of the activities of the ‘La Nave’ ward of San Vittore, from which the ‘La Nave di San Vittore Choir’ takes its name. In addition to prisoner-patients who wish to do so, outside workers and volunteers participate. It is not just an artistic activity but part of a process of care, rehabilitation and inclusion. The activity of the “Coro Amici della Nave di San Vittore”, born in 2019 as an external continuation of the activity of the Coro La Nave” in collaboration with the SerD of the Asst Santi Paolo e Carlo, refers to the same spirit. It is composed of former patients of the ward, ex-prisoners or even inmates who, in the various forms provided for by law, can undertake activities outside the institution, as well as volunteers and ordinary citizens: the integration between different realities makes the choir a highly formative moment.
The choirs are conducted by Paolo Foschini.