SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre Opens in Venice
Human beings have always been intrinsically linked with the ocean, but there has never been a greater need to reaffirm this relationship and raise awareness as to its importance. The first and only Italian centre dedicated to Ocean Literacy will aim to encourage wide, diverse audiences to engage with their understanding of the ocean.
The initiative, led by UNESCO-IOC and Prada Group, forms part of the SEA BEYOND project, which has been working since 2019 to increase awareness among the younger generations of issues surrounding ocean sustainability and preservation. Ocean literacy connects science, policy, culture and education in a way that empowers everyone — from students to decision-makers — to protect marine ecosystems and ensure a more resilient future.
With the SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre, UNESCO-IOC is further anchoring its ocean work in local communities—transforming science into public engagement, and fostering ocean-literate citizens equipped to protect our seas. The Centre in Venice now becomes a flagship in this global network, showing how ocean education can be experiential, inclusive and impactful.
Venice: the natural home of ocean literacy
Venice was selected to host the SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre during the first Ocean Literacy World Conference in June 2024 that culminated with UNESCO-IOC Member States signing the Venice Declaration for Ocean Literacy in Action, a ten-point manifesto designed to restore society’s relationship with the ocean.
The Centre, co-designed by CRA – Carlo Ratti Associati and UNESCO-IOC, is located on the island of San Servolo, a cultural hub in the Venetian Lagoon that is already home to several major institutions. The choice of site is both tangibly and symbolically significant, as the area is a unique example of a ‘transition ecosystem’ shaped by continuous interactions between land, sea and humankind.
The Centre’s activities – designed to foster dialogue and employing an accessible, inclusive and multi-sensory approach – have been developed for students of all ages, local communities, researchers, residents, and tourists from both Italy and overseas. These diverse audiences will be addressed in a similarly broad language that compares ideas and perspectives from different disciplines.
Francesca Santoro, UNESCO-IOC Senior Programme Officer, who leads the team that worked on the project to develop the Centre, said: “The SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre reaffirms the commitments we made during the Ocean Literacy World Conference, and supports the development of other SEA BEYOND activities in the city, like ‘Kindergarten of the Lagoon’, a project that helps Venetian preschool children build a stronger bond with the lagoon through outdoor education activities. In this new phase, the Ocean Literacy Centre is aiming to become a go-to structure at a local, national and international level.”
Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, commented: “The SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre we are opening today in Venice is a real accomplishment that bears witness to the strength of the partnership between the Prada Group and UNESCO-IOC: an example of teamwork that has seen us working side by side since 2019, and particularly over the last three years, collaborating enthusiastically and with determination to promote the principles of ocean literacy and protection. The Centre’s opening, supported by the contributions of experts from diverse disciplines, means the ocean now has a physical space where people can ‘learn by doing’, a place where SEA BEYOND’s motto – Learn, Think, Act – can really take shape.”
“One of the greatest challenges facing coastal cities in the era of climate crisis is redefining humanity’s understanding of—and relationship with—water,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, and current Curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2025. “We proudly announce our collaboration with UNESCO-IOC on the Ocean Literacy Centre, a new educational initiative that combines environmental advocacy with data-driven storytelling and immersive experiences. With this project, we strived to spark lasting connections between visitors and the ocean”.
The visitor experience: from macro to micro
The concept of the Centre, co-designed by CRA – Carlo Ratti Associati and UNESCO-IOC, organically brings together the centre’s three main spaces. Zooming in from a macro to a micro level, from 10 million metres to 1,000 metres from the Earth, visitors to the centre are taken on a journey through three rooms: the first provides a global perspective, the second adopts a local dimension, and the third focuses on the human scale, examining the power of action.
In the first room, A World of Islands is centred on the Spilhaus Projection: a map drawn by the geophysicist and oceanographer Athelstan Spilhaus in 1942 that presents the ocean as a single interconnected body of water, turning traditional cartography’s anthropocentric perspective on its head. A 3D extrusion of the map is presented as a table of water, 60 centimetres off the ground to make it accessible to children and people with disabilities. Feel the Change is a predominantly tactile installation, allowing visitors to touch reconstructions of marine ecosystems, both in their natural state and when damaged by acidification. Meanwhile, the Water Salinity activity allows guests to taste water from parts of the ocean with different salt levels.
In the second room, The Venetian Lagoon takes centre stage: a table displaying a 3D extrusion of the lagoon is set against a wall with windows that forge visual continuity with the outside landscape. The story narrated in the previous space here takes on a local dimension, illustrating how tides function in an area that acts as a buffer between land and sea, where hydrodynamic exchanges influence temperatures, salinity and currents, and shape the entire habitat. Here visitors will be able to analyse samples collected from the lagoon on guided boat trips organised periodically by the centre.
In the third room, The Power of Actions introduces a human dimension and more explicitly invites us to take action. It employs an interactive and fun approach, particularly through a floor game in the shape of the island of San Servolo, developed in partnership with game designer Luca Borsa, which challenges young visitors to create their own ocean literacy project.
More information
The SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre will be open on Tuesday and Friday from 10:00 to 12:00 and from 15:00 to 17:00. Special events for local residents will be organised at weekends.
For more information please visit www.oceanliteracycentre.org
