Abstract

This essay aims to examine the school experiences of artistic lyceums students in a northern Italy context. This is a qualitative research, based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, realized in two secondary schools in Milan, one public and one private. It intends to investigate how cultural class differences form different ways of living the choice of artistic studies (Allen, 2013). The art school, reformed in terms of artistic lyceum by the Gelmini Reform (2009), occupies a particular position in educational field. It offers a peculiar training, which goes beyond the hierarchy between manual and intellectual work. The analysis of interview accounts allows identifying some class disparities in educational dispositions (Bourdieu, Passeron, 1964, 1970; Archer et al., 2007; Reay, 2010). The art school seems, therefore, to function as a device for selection and social division.